Emmanuel Macron never does anything by chance, so why did he allow himself to be filmed downing a beer in one on Saturday night? The clip, which has gone viral, has angered puritanical progressives. Green MP Sandrine Rousseau has branded Macron’s behaviour ‘toxic masculinity’.
The president of the French Republic slaked his thirst just before midnight in the dressing room of the Toulouse rugby team in the Stade de France. Toulouse had beaten La Rochelle to win the French rugby championship, an event at which Macron had been introduced to the players before kick-off. He ducked out of a similar invitation in April at the final of the French football cup, worried that the heckling would shake the stadium’s rafters. Evidently, he decided to bet on the bonhomie of rugby supporters.
There was a brief flurry of barracking when Macron emerged onto the pitch to shake hands with the two teams but it was more of the pantomime variety.
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