Scandal over Macron ex-aide mounts
French minister grilled in parliament
PARIS: France’s interior minister appeared before parliament yesterday as pressure mounted on President Emmanuel Macron over his handling of a former top security aide who has been charged with assault after a video emerged showing him striking a young man during a protest.
Opposition lawmakers have accused the government of a cover-up after press reports claimed Interior Minister Gerard Collomb knew about the May 1 incident but failed to alert prosecutors.
The security aide, Alexandre Benalla, was charged late on Sunday with assault with an accomplice, interfering in police work, impersonating a police officer and illegally receiving surveillance footage.
An associate, Vincent Crase, who is a security agent employed by Mr Macron’s Republic on the Move party, has also been charged, as have three police officers accused of providing police surveillance footage of the protest aimed at proving that Mr Benalla was justified in striking the man.
Following Mr Collomb’s appearance, Paris police chief Michel Delpuech was also questioned in parliament at 2pm.
Mr Macron has yet to speak publicly on a scandal poised to become the most damaging since he won the presidency last year with promises to restore integrity and transparency to government.
The president “is calm and very determined to see the truth established”, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told RTL radio yesterday.
He insisted there was no “political affair”, saying Mr Macron found Mr Benalla’s acts “shocking, unacceptable, it must be punished”.
But although Mr Benalla was suspended for two weeks without pay shortly after the May 1 protest in Paris, prosecutors were informed only after videos of the incident emerged last week.
Mr Benalla, 26, was fired on Friday after French daily Le Monde published a video taken by smartphone showing Mr Macron’s security aide striking a man at least twice as riot police looked on while breaking up the demonstration.
Mr Benalla is seen wearing a police helmet and visor as well as a police armband, even though he has never been a policeman and was supposed to be accompanying the police as an observer.
Le Monde later posted another video showing Mr Benalla violently wrestling a young woman to the ground during the scuffles on a square near the Rue Mouffetard, a picturesque Left Bank street.
Just days after the May 1 demonstrations, which were marred this year by anarchists who clashed with police, Mr Macron had tweeted that “everything will be done so that those responsible will be identified and held accountable for their actions”.
Meanwhile, a third video published by the Mediapart investigative news site shows police officers kicking and punching the young man even after he has been immobilised on the sidewalk.
The man and woman seen in the videos have come forward and plan to testify, a source close to the inquiry said.
The government has been forced to suspend debate on a constitutional reform bill after a revolt by lawmakers, who have announced investigations by both the National Assembly and Senate.
“Why the devil did he insist on protecting a second-rank employee who should have been kicked out of the Elysee months ago?” rightwing daily Le Figaro, which has made no secret of its support for Mr Macron since his election, asked in an editorial on Sunday.
Adding to the controversy, Le Monde reported on Friday that despite his suspension Mr Benalla was allowed this month to move into a palatial mansion along the Seine reserved for Elysee workers.
He was also being provided with a car and chauffeur, the paper said.
Investigators have searched Mr Benalla’s home in the Paris suburb of Issy-Les-Moulineaux, where a city hall official said Mr Benalla was supposed to have gotten married on Saturday.
The scandal could hardly have come at a worse time for Mr Macron, whose approval ratings fell to a record low of 39% last week.