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Macron security officer in custody and will be fired over violent video Macron accused of cover-up over violent security official
(about 4 hours later)
A security officer for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been taken into police custody and will be fired from his post after he was filmed hitting and stamping on a man at the edge of a Paris demonstration while dressed as a police officer. Emmanuel Macron faces the biggest crisis of his presidency over the growing scandal of one of his closest security officials who was filmed being allowed by police to violently assault a young man and woman at the edge of a Paris demonstration while illegally dressed as an officer.
Alexandre Benalla was being questioned by investigators on Friday morning after presenting himself at a police station. The French public prosecutor has opened a preliminary inquiry into a number of potential charges against him, including violence by a public official, pretending to be a member of the police and illegally using police insignia. Alexandre Benalla, a member of Macron’s close circle, was taken into police custody on Friday morning, facing possible charges of violence by a public official, impersonating a police officer and the illegal use of police insignia. He also faces charges of complicity in illegally trying to obtain surveillance footage.
The Élysée announced that proceedings had begun to terminate Benalla’s work contract after “new facts” emerged about the incident. A second bodyguard, Vincent Crase, who worked for Macron’s centrist political party La République En Marche, as well as occasionally for the presidency, was also in police custody. A senior Élysée official who runs Macron’s presidential office was also being questioned by police.
Macron had come under fire over his office’s seemingly slow reaction to the scandal, which is the worst crisis to date of his presidency. It is damaging to the young centrist president because it calls into question his promise to lead an “exemplary” republic. The Élysée sacked Benalla on Friday morning, days after the mounting scandal erupted, but opposition politicians have accused the government of a cover-up.
Several politicians from left to right insisted on a parliament inquiry into how a presidential security official could have appeared wearing a police armband and visor, committing violence among real police officers without being stopped. There was anger and surprise that senior figures at the Élysée, who learned of the incident in May, did not refer it to the prosecutor as a crime. The scandal hit when Le Monde published a video this week showing Benalla and Crase in a Paris square where riot police were firing teargas and confronting crowds on 1 May during labour day street gatherings.
The scandal erupted when the newspaper Le Monde published a video on Wednesday showing Benalla, a senior member of security staff at the Élysée, in a Paris square where riot police were teargassing and moving on young people on 1 May, during May Day street gatherings. Benalla – who is not a police officer – is seen wearing a police visor. He first grabs and drags a woman, then drags, hits and stamps on an unarmed young man who seems to be in pain. Crase is also seen illegally wearing a police armband dragging and threatening a man.
Benalla, wearing a police visor, is seen first grabbing and dragging a woman, then dragging, hitting and stamping on an unarmed young man who seems to be in pain. The many riot police close by appear to let Benalla carry out the violence. Crucially, the many riot police officers close by appear to let both men carry out the violence undisturbed.
One witness who saw the incident said: “What I watched was not normal; it was extraordinary, it was not legal and it was not techniques used by the police. It’s unacceptable, I’m extremely angry and I want to see action by the justice system, police and administration against this member of staff of the presidency.” When the Élysée finally sacked Benalla, a spokesperson explained that further details had come to light – Benalla, on the night that the Le Monde story broke, had allegedly colluded with several high-ranking police officers to steal state video surveillance footage of the incident. Three police officers, including two high-ranking officers, were suspended and the interior minister, Gérard Collomb, “strongly condemned” their actions.
Benalla, who previously worked as a bodyguard and has never been employed as a police officer, had asked the Élysée for permission to use a day off to “observe police operations” during marches in Paris. Opposition politicians refused to resume normal parliamentary business and instead demanded the government answer questions on the spiralling state scandal. They demanded to know why one of Macron’s closest security officials was allowed to illegally pose as a police officer and beat up members of the public with impunity and why Macron’s office had not reported the incident as a crime to prosecutors but appeared to cover it up.
There was stupefaction from opposition politicians that Benalla had not been immediately sacked at the time. An Élysée spokesman said that in May, after the incident, Benalla had been suspended for two weeks then allowed to stay in his job, shifting to more administrative tasks. “The very core of the state has been tainted. Our work must stop immediately and the prime minister must come and explain this,” said Christian Jacob of the rightwing Les Républicains party in parliament.
Despite the Élysée insisting he now carried out only administrative tasks, the French TV channel BFM revealed Benalla was on the bus for the French football team’s World Cup victory parade along the Champs-Élysées this week. It emerged that the Élysée and the interior minister were aware of Benalla’s violent actions on 2 May but they did not report it as a crime to police. Instead, Benalla was suspended for 15 days and, although the Élysée said he had been shifted to administrative tasks, he kept an office at the Élysée and was still engaged in security work this week, including being present on the team bus of the French World Cup-winning football squad at its Paris victory parade.
A second bodyguard who worked for Macron’s security operation at the Élysée also featured at the start of the video, wearing a police armband, and violently dragging and shaking the young man, raising his hand as if to hit him. He was identified by the Élysée as Vincent Crase, a reservist gendarme employed by the president’s party, La République En Marche, who also occasionally worked for the Élysée’s security operation. Le Monde also revealed that Benalla had been given a flat in special Élysée lodgings in an exclusive district of Paris less than 10 days ago – despite the violent incident.
Crase had “exceeded his authorisation” to observe the police operation, a spokesman said, adding that he was suspended and the palace stopped working with him. Politicians on both the right and left accused the government of a cover-up, the socialists called for Collomb to resign, and the leftwing La France Insoumise party threatened to call for a vote of a motion of no-confidence.
The scandal is extremely damaging for the centrist Macron, who won the presidency with pledges to restore transparency and integrity to the nation’s highest office. Macron had promised an end to old-school corrupt politics and a new era of ethics in an “exemplary” Republic.
The president has refused to comment on the affair and the Élysée has been seen as slow to react, prompting the opposition to complain the president was protecting his close official.
The scandal comes with Macron’s popularity at a record low – defying analysts’ expectations of a post-World Cup bounce – with an approval rating of just 39% in a BVA poll carried out on Wednesday and Thursday.
Lawmakers have launched their own commission of inquiry, with opposition parties demanding that government officials immediately answer questions in parliament.
Macron’s office said earlier this week that Benalla had been given permission to “observe police operations” on 1 May when the incident took place.
France’s police watchdog opened its own inquiry into how the two men had been dressed as officers and allowed to act violently without being stopped.France’s police watchdog opened its own inquiry into how the two men had been dressed as officers and allowed to act violently without being stopped.
Politicians on the left and right suggested there had been a cover-up and questioned why the incident had not been referred to the police when it came to light. Politicians on the left and the right suggested there had been a cover-up and questioned why the incident had not been referred to the police when it came to light in May.
The leftwinger Jean-Luc Mélenchon said: “If we accept that anyone can be allowed to pretend to be police alongside the police, we are no longer in a state of law.” The Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, said Collomb’s position was on the line. “Why did the police surrounding Benalla on that day not intervene? What was Benalla’s power? ... Why was Benalla protected?”
The Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, said there was a a double standard in how Benalla had been treated compared with any ordinary French citizen.
Benalla was a familiar face during Macron’s 2017 presidential campaign and would regularly walk close to the candidate as part of his security operation. When Macron won the election, Benalla was transferred to the security staff at the Élysée.
The pro-business president had intended to spend this week on domestic visits in an attempt to counter his recent dip in approval ratings, and to shake off the persistent tag that he is a “president of the rich” not doing enough to help those in need.
On a walkabout in south-west France, Macron was asked whether the Benalla scandal called into question the standing of the French Republic. He said the republic was “unalterable” and refused to answer further questions.
Emmanuel MacronEmmanuel Macron
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