French President Emmanuel Macron denies marital dispute after being shoved by his wife in a viral video

New Delhi (India) May 27: Emmanuel Macron has denied that he and his wife, Brigitte, got into a fight after a video went viral, which seemed to show her pushing him in the face as they got ready to exit from a plane in Vietnam. 

Brigitte then seemed to turn down her husband's extended arm as they descended the plane stairs for their formal greeting, which increased the confusion. On social media, the video went viral, with many people wondering what was going on and others making jokes.

Macron said, "My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise."

“Now it's become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories,” he added.

Macron stressed that people were misunderstanding his conversation with his wife and blamed disinformation campaigns of misrepresenting what he described as a playful moment.

He linked manipulations to "networks that are quite well-traceable," blaming "the Russians" and "the extremists in France" in particular.The footage was spread by French far-right accounts and Russian state media.

According to Macron, other videos of him were misunderstood. He said, "People have thought I shared a bag of cocaine, tussled with the Turkish president, now that I’m having a domestic dispute with my wife.None of this is true. Everyone needs to calm down,” he said.

A similar explanation had been given by his office. His office said, "It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around. It's a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists.”

Macron's Southeast Asia journey begins in Vietnam, where he will promote France as a reliable replacement for China and the US.France and Vietnam signed agreements on Monday worth €9 billion (£7.55 billion) on defence, Airbus planes, and other matters.

Aadrika Tayal