Clip shows protester tackled while running towards French leader, not 'assassination bid'

The nine-second clip was shared on Twitter on April 13, 2023, where it has been viewed more than 207,000 times.

"French President Emmanuel Macron appears to have been assassinated during Amsterdam visit -- Reuters," reads the caption written in traditional Chinese characters.

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A screenshot, taken on April 18, 2023, of the misleading post.

The claim circulated after Macron's two-day state visit to the Netherlands beginning on April 11 was twice targeted by protesters as he pushed through his flagship pension overhaul, which included raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 (archived link).

The plan, which was signed into law on April 15, has triggered violent protests across France in the last three months (archived link).

The video has also been shared alongside a similar false claim on Twitter, Facebook and Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

But the claim is false. Reuters did not report that Macron was assassinated -- only that a protester running towards the French president was tackled to the ground by security officers (archived link).

There have also been no recent reports about an attempt to kill the French president as of April 18, 2023.

Protesters arrested

A Google reverse image search found the video was published in a Dutch-language tweet on April 12, 2023 about Macron's visit to the University of Amsterdam (archived link).

The caption reads: "Protester tackled during Macron's visit to the University of Amsterdam".

The video was also published by AFP and can be seen in the archives here.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the Twitter video (right):

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A screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the Twitter video (right). 

AFP reported on April 12 that the protester ran towards Macron and was tackled to the ground, knocking over a man in uniform as the French president stepped out of a limousine with Dutch King Willem-Alexander and was being greeted by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema (archived link).

"We arrested two protesters for running towards the president. For disturbing public order and making threats," Amsterdam police spokesperson Lex van Liebergen told AFP.

"It was a man and a woman, protesters. One of them had a banner."

Macron has since appeared on an April 17 live broadcast, stating he understands the "anger" of the French over his widely unpopular pension reform and regrets that no consensus had been found on the change (archived link).