A video posted on the website of local newspaper Le Telegramme Tuesday showed Valls emerging from a building to applause from a small group of people in the city of Lamballe.
Valls walks toward the crowd shaking hands. At one point, a young man wearing a purple sweatshirt is seen shaking the Socialist candidate`s hand and then with the same hand, giving Valls a small slap on the lower face.
A bodyguard at the candidate`s side immediately clamped the man to the ground.
Police said later that the youth was aged 18 and had been detained.
Valls, who is running in the left’s primaries on Sunday to be a candidate for president, did not appear to have been hurt.
Valls, speaking to local reporters shortly after the incident, said: “I have never been afraid of having contact with French people. Democracy can never mean violence.”
French candidate Valls lightly slapped during campaign stop - VIDEO
18 January 2017
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Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has been seen getting lightly slapped on the chin by a young man during a presidential campaign stop in the western region of Brittany.
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