Emmanuel Macron in Tahiti
(Picture: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)A viral image of French president Emmanuel Macron covered in wreaths, or ‘leis’ to use their official name, isn’t all that it seems.
The French president is currently on a tour of French Polynesia and touched down in Tahiti, in the south Pacific on Sunday where he was greeted by an orero, a guardian symbolising Polynesian culture, as per Euronews.
Images and videos of Macron, shared by several verified Twitter accounts, covered from his neck down to his knees in the flowery wreaths went viral on social media on Monday prompting many jokes and memes.
Calmez vous sur les colliers de fleurs enfin ! 😂 pic.twitter.com/Y2mkmUWm8x
— Illuminati Reptilien (@IllumiReptilien) July 26, 2021
President Macron is turned into a human wreath during his official welcome to French Polynesia. pic.twitter.com/7q9fiULEUN
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) July 26, 2021
— Dana Grayson (@DanaGrayson) July 26, 2021
It is like an Onion story, why would he allow this to be done to him? 😀
— Badinerie (@Badinerie3) July 26, 2021
I want this so bad to not be a tradition but a thing they wanted to see if he'd roll with and not object to https://t.co/fDpqYJYErf
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana) July 26, 2021
However, all is not what it seems...
The image of Macron is not real and he never wore that many wreaths. The above images have been doctored to make it look like the French leader was swamped in leis but as many pointed out, this simply wasn’t the case.
I think this is image is a 'lei'.
— Anthony Stewart (@anthonystewart) July 27, 2021
Nice photoshop job.
Here is the vision. HT @liamfoxabc https://t.co/E02qhMC4e8 pic.twitter.com/tThpLLceAo
I'm pretty sure he didn't.😅 This image looks much more manageable. pic.twitter.com/i7Rk4eeq57
— Rebekah (@ToropPro) July 26, 2021
This is the real picture, but this one is fake! pic.twitter.com/p7OqxOt4Vv
— Ali Al-Mikdamعلي المكَدام (@ali_almikdam) July 27, 2021
It’s a fake, here’s the teal photo. pic.twitter.com/OaaRBIh3Eg
— Benoît Travers (@BenoitTravers) July 27, 2021
It’s hard to tell from the still images but if you study the wreaths in the videos that are being shared you will notice that the ones further down Macron’s body move in an odd and unnatural manner.
Here is the original video of Macron. As you can see from about one minute in he is wearing a lot of wreaths around his neck but not THAT many.
We’re sorry to be party poopers on this one but we will admit that it is funny even if it isn’t true.
A similar situation emerged a few months ago when a picture of former health secretary Matt Hancock drinking a dodgy looking pint of Guinness went viral but had also been edited.
