Macron: bodyguard was not my lover nor knew nuclear codes
EMMANUEL MACRON has broken his silence to say he will take the blame for his violent bodyguard as he launched a Trump-like attack on the media for its coverage of the scandal.
The French president also sought to dispel rumours that Alexandre Benalla, his 26-year-old former security aide, was his lover or had been given the codes to France’s nuclear arsenal.
The scandal over Mr Benalla, sacked last Friday after a video emerged of him beating a young protester and manhandling another during a May Day protest in Paris, has sent Mr Macron’s poll ratings to record lows.
Opposition MPS have pointed to a cover-up and paralysed parliamentary debate while also launching investigations that have questioned the interior minister, the Paris police chief and other top Elysée and security officials.
“What happened on May 1 is terrible, serious and, for me, it was a disappointment and a betrayal,” Mr Macron told MPS from his majority Republic on the Move party on Tuesday.
He told them he was “shocked” by the behaviour of Mr Benalla, whom he had mistakenly trusted. But he also attacked the French media, with comments that echoed the US president’s frequent accusations of “fake news”.
“We have a press that no longer seeks truth,” he said. “The media says, ‘Look. Looped images of a scene [of Mr Benalla’s violence]’, which is unacceptable and which I condemn. But I would like to see the scene before, the scene after, the context, what happened,” he said.
“Are the images shown with the desire to seek truth and to present facts in a balanced manner?” he said, before adding he believed they were not.
The 40-year-old president had begun his speech with a joke about the various rumours on social media about his former bodyguard, who was his chief of security during his 2017 election campaign.
“Alexandre Benalla has never had the nuclear codes … Alexandre Benalla is not my lover,” he said, to laughter from his MPS.
The Élysée knew of the assault in May and Mr Benalla was suspended for two weeks and demoted. But he was only sacked and taken into police custody last week, two days after Le Monde published the contentious video.