French president under pressure as guard defends self
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron was under mounting pressure on Monday over a scandal sparked by his former top security aide, who has insisted he was trying to help police when he was filmed manhandling demonstrators at a violent Paris protest.
France’s interior minister and the Paris police chief both defended their handling of the burgeoning scandal, telling a parliamentary commission it was up to Macron’s office to respond after videos emerged of Alexandre Benalla hitting a protester.
Dubbed “Benallagate”, the affair has prompted opposition claims of an attempted cover-up and paralysed parliamentary debate.
Benalla, 26, was charged Sunday with assault and impersonating a police officer over the videos of him wrestling with two protesters on May 1 while wearing a riot officer’s helmet and police armband.
It is unclear how Benalla obtained the equipment, since he was only supposed to be attending the protest as an observer.
On Monday Benalla said the young man and woman he was filmed scuffling with were “particularly virulent individuals” whom he had been trying to “bring under control” while “lending a hand” to police.
“This personal initiative... is obviously being used to tarnish the president in circumstances that defy comprehension,” his lawyers said in a statement.
He insisted that his action was “vigorous but without violence and caused no injury”.
Speaking before a parliamentary commission, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb and Paris police chief Michel Delpuech both said they learned of a video of Benalla circulating on social media on May 2, the day after the protest. Asked why he did not report the incident to prosecutors, Delpuech said it was up to Macron’s office to respond. AFP