The President of the French Republic,
Emmanuel Macron,
is protected by Groupe de sécurité de la présidence de la République
( GSPR ).
GSPR is the security unit
in charge of the safety of the President of the French Republic.
Established in 1983,
it is part of both the National Gendarmerie and National Police.
It is distinct from the Republican Guard,
which is in charge of the security of official buildings.
In the past,
the group was composed of 30 members
of the National Gendarmerie
and 30 members of the National Police,
commanded by a lieutenant colonel of the Gendarmerie
or a Commissaire divisionnaire de Police,
alternately in charge.
Since 2019,
the Director of the GSPR has been Georges Salinas of the National Police,
assisted by colonel Benoît Ferrand of the National Gendarmerie.
During the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy,
the unit was only composed of policemen
from the Service de la protection,
and from the Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion unit (RAID).
During his administration,
the unit had 90 members because of higher threat levels.
No Gendarmerie officers were selected to be in the unit
as Sarkozy believed he should not be protected by the military.
Back to President Macron security,
On Tuesday, 8 June 2021,
French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped while shaking hands
across a barrier in a small southeastern French town.
According to French TV channel BFM,
officers scout locations before a presidential visit.
Armed personnel are then assigned
to closely guard the president on the trip itself.
The channel reports that 10 members of the GSPR
were with Mr Macron on Tuesday's trip.
Experts highlighted on Wednesday how French security services
advise French presidents on their safety,
but do not have authority or powers
to prevent them putting themselves in danger.
“In the United States it’s the opposite:
the Secret Service decides if a trip is seen
as too dangerous and no one opposes them,
not the people in charge of protocol or even the president,”
Jean-Pierre Diot,
a former member of France’s specialist VIP police protection force,
told Le Parisien.
“The Americans have a history of attacks,” he added.
However,
French President Emmanuel Macron will continue
to greet crowds during his travels,
despite a security scare that saw him slapped by a man in the south of France,
a government spokesman said.
Macron shrugged off his assault on Tuesday
in the village of Tain l’Hermitage,
calling it an “isolated event”, and “stupidity”,
and he went to chat with and fistbump onlookers later in the day
in the nearby town of Valence.