Macron aide could face charges for attacking protester at march
THE French presidency was in turmoil yesterday after prosecutors launched a probe into footage showing a senior aide to Emmanuel Macron beating up a protester at a May Day march.
The film shows Alexandre Benalla – in charge of Mr Macron’s security during his electoral campaign last year and now assistant to the president’s chief of staff – in a police helmet and armband, but no uniform, joining CRS riot police at a protest on May 1.
The incident took place in a popular tourist spot at Place de la Contrescarpe in the fifth district of Paris.
In the film shot by a student activist, Mr Benalla grabs a woman by the neck, charging her down the street. Shortly afterwards he returns to the scene, drags a young man along the ground, grabs him by the neck and hits him.
The Paris prosecutor yesterday launched a preliminary probe into “violence by a person with a public service mission, usurping a function and usurping signs reserved for public authority”.
Patrick Strzoda, Mr Macron’s principal private secretary, confirmed that Mr Benalla was the man in the video.
Mr Strzoda said he had authorised Mr Benalla to accompany police during the May demonstration as an observer.
“When I saw the videos, I summoned him the same day and asked if it was him,” which he confirmed, he said. The ex-security chief was then suspended for two weeks, demoted and threatened with dismissal if he did anything else untoward. He is still working at the Elysée and reportedly helped manage security at a garden party for the victorious French World Cup football squad.
Bruno Roger-petit, the Elysée spokesman, said he was handed “the most serious sanction ever pronounced against a project manager working at the Elysée” and had been “relieved of duties in terms of the organisation and security of the president’s movements”.
The opposition called for a parliamentary inquiry. “Faced with this double fault and clear and unacceptable attack, [Mr Benalla] must resign,” wrote Rachid Ternal, the socialist senator.
Laurent Wauquiez, head of The Republicans, a centre-right party, called on Mr Macron to answer questions over what Mr Benalla was doing at the demonstration and whether there were “attempts to hush up this affair”.