Macron lodges legal complaint against photographer over holiday pictures

Emmanuel Macron has filed a legal complaint against a photographer who he says breached his right to privacy by taking holiday snaps of him and his wife in Marseille this week. 

The French president has already gone to great lengths to keep the details of his summer holiday private, declining to reveal where he was heading - other than that it would be somewhere in France. 

His demand for privacy is in stark contrast to his predecessors Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr Hollande invited the press to join him on walkabouts in the Cote d’Azur, while Mr Sarkozy headed to New Hampshire in the US to stay in a luxury villa with his family.

The word finally got out that Mr Macron was staying in the port city of Marseille on the south of France, and staying in a private villa in a gated community. 

Besides the occasional jog along the beach, the president has gone to great lengths to keep his movements private. French media have reported that he has taken private tours around the area during the days, and that he has had his security team ward off paparazzi. 

But one photographer has reportedly ignored the warnings and taken to following the 39-year-old president and his wife Brigitte on his motorbike.

The man pursued the president and his wife “on several occasions despite repeat warnings from security staff, and sometimes did so in a risky and perilous manner,” the French government said in a statement.

Over the weekend, the photographer took it a step too far for Mr Macron’s liking.

"On Sunday, he entered the private property (of Mr Macron's villa) which led to the complaint," a presidential spokeswoman said.

It remains unclear how the photographer got so close to the villa, especially as the entire community is gated and that visitors need permission just to enter. 

Details about the photographer, including his employer, remains unclear, but he spoke to the VSD newspaper after he was released from police custody. 

“The police searched through all my gear, my bags… I even had to remove my shoelaces and my watch,” he told the paper. 

He added that police had “treated him like a criminal’ and searched through all his memory cards and computer memory, adding that it was “totally illegal”. 

Meanwhile, the choice of gritty Marseille for the president’s holiday getaway has raised eyebrows across France, with Mr Macron apparently turning his back on the more typical holiday destinations like Nice, Saint-Tropez, and Cannes.