Macron cancels plans as pressure mounts over alleged cover-up

EMMANUEL MACRON, the French president, is facing mounting pressure to explain his failure to order immediate legal action against a close aide filmed assaulting protesters, after the interior minister and the Paris police chief sought to shift blame yesterday.

Mr Macron cancelled plans to join spectators at the Tour de France tomorrow. It would have been his first public appearance since the scandal erupted.

Gérard Collomb, the interior minister, and Michel Delpuech, the Paris police chief, testified separately to a parliamentary committee of inquiry that it was up to the president’s office to report the aide’s actions to prosecutors.

It was only after French newspaper Le Monde published mobile phone footage last Wednesday, showing Alexandre Benalla, a security officer who was a deputy chief of staff at the Élysée Palace, attacking two protesters at a May 1 protest that he was sacked. He was charged on Sunday with assault and impersonating a police officer.

The video shows police officers watching without intervening. Mr Benalla defended his actions by saying

‘I considered the facts were being dealt with at the appropriate level, so I did not get involved further’

he was “lending [the police] a hand,” according to his lawyers.

He was suspended for two weeks after the incident but subsequently continued to appear in public alongside the president.

The interior minister and the police chief both acknowledged learning of the footage on May 2. Mr Collomb said he had raised the matter with the office of the president, who was then visiting Australia, and was told the police chief had been informed. “It was up to them to respond,” he told MPS. “I considered the facts that were flagged up were being dealt with at the appropriate level, so I did not get involved further.”

The police chief said he was informed of the video by the president’s office, which could have alerted prosecutors. “I considered it was up to the initiative of officials in the hierarchy,” Mr Delpuech said.

Three senior police officers have been charged for allegedly passing CCTV footage to Mr Benalla in an apparent attempt to conceal evidence of the incident. Vincent Crase, a bodyguard employed by Mr Macron’s party, was also charged with assault and impersonating a police officer.

Opposition leaders and newspaper editorials condemned the existence of “parallel police”, and demanded that Mr Macron himself appear before the inquiry.