An unusually intimate kiss between French President Emmanuel Macron and his sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera during the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony has sparked a flurry of comments on social media.
Photographs show Oudea-Castera, a former professional tennis player, clutching Macron's bicep with one hand and holding the back of his head with another as she kisses his neck.
Macron is seen gripping his minister's arm tightly, while French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal appears to be looking away.
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"Amelie Oudea-Castera continues to make people talk about her", the publication noted. "On July 13, she was still the subject of ridicule after having plunged into the Seine, at the foot of the National Assembly. [...] After having skidded on the cobblestones and thus slipped into the water of the river, she did the plank in front of TV cameras near the edge..."
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Social media users had varied reactions to the photograph. "He pretends to look elsewhere! He doesn't know where to stand!" one user commented, while another said: "It's my lover that I'm kissing like this. Embarrassing."
"I find this photo indecent, it's not worthy of a president and a minister," another poster disapprovingly added.
While the celebratory embrace raised eyebrows, not everyone was taken aback. One commenter justified the gesture as "a slightly warm congratulation to celebrate the moment".
Formerly holding the post of France's education minister, Oudea-Castera assumed her current role in January this year. Nevertheless, her stint was short-lived as she vacated the office in under a month due to controversies, including those pertaining to her offspring attending top-tier private institutions and her own critical views on public education.
Since May 2022, Oudea-Castera has held the portfolio of Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games, working alongside Prime Ministers Elisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal.
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