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FRANCE-POLITICS-ASSAULT
Macron under fire as security aide detained in assault inquiry
PARIS, July 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – President Emmanuel Macron, trying to curb
what has become the most damaging scandal of his presidency, on Friday fired
a top security aide who has been taken into custody after videos emerged
showing him strike a young man during a demonstration in Paris in May.
The Elysee Palace told AFP that Alexandre Benalla would be dismissed
after “new elements” emerged in the case, namely that he is suspected of
unlawfully receiving police surveillance footage in a bid to prove his
innocence.
A source close to the inquiry also said that three officers, including
two high-ranking officials, have also been suspended on suspicion of
providing the footage to Benalla.
He is facing charges of violence by a public official, impersonating a
police officer and the illegal use of police insignia, and complicity in
unauthorised use of surveillance footage, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
French daily Le Monde published this week a video taken by smartphone
showing Benalla manhandling and striking a protester while wearing a police
helmet and visor during a May 1 demonstration.
In a second video published by the paper late Thursday, Benalla — who
has never been a policeman — is also seen violently wrestling a young woman
to the ground.
Macron’s office said earlier this week that he had been given permission
to “observe police operations”.
A few days after the incident Benalla was suspended without pay for two
weeks and transferred to an administrative role instead of organising
security for Macron’s trips.
But the incident was not reported to prosecutors.
Also on Friday prosecutors said Vincent Crase, a security aide for
Macron’s Republic on the Move party and an associate of Benalla’s who also
intervened during the May 1 protest, was also taken into custody.
– ‘Political crisis’ –
The scandal comes with Macron’s popularity at a record low, defying
analysts’ expectations of a post-World Cup bump — with an approval rating of
just 39 percent in a BVA poll carried out on Wednesday and Thursday.
The attempt at damage control follows an outcry by Macron’s critics, not
least because the 40-year-old former investment banker won the presidency
with pledges to restore transparency and integrity to the nation’s highest
office.
Just days after the May 1 demonstrations, which were marred this year by
anarchists who clashed with police and attacked shops, Macron tweeted that
“everything will be done so that those responsible will be identified and
held accountable for their actions.”
Several newspapers on Friday assailed the president’s refusal to address
the scandal despite repeatedly being questioned by journalists during a visit
to southwest France on Thursday.
“By not immediately managing a disciplinary problem, Emmanuel Macron now
faces a political crisis,” wrote the rightwing Le Figaro daily — which
usually makes no secret of its admiration for the president.
“Without Le Monde’s revelations, this would never have come to light,
under the good old principle of ‘not seen, not caught’,” it wrote.
Lawmakers have launched their own commission of inquiry, with opposition
parties demanding Friday that government officials answer questions in
parliament.
“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 Republicains party.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed in parliament Thursday that
Benalla had “no right to intervene” at the gathering of leftwing student
protestors on the Rue Mouffetard, a picturesque Left Bank street loved by
tourists.
But in another potentially damaging twist, the BFM news channel reported
that Benalla had been back on duty doing security work this week, travelling
on the bus carrying France’s World Cup-winning football team down the Champs
Elysees for a victory parade.
The case has also prompted unflattering accounts of Benalla’s behaviour
from other officials who have worked with him.
Arnaud Montebourg, a former minister in ex-president Francois Hollande’s
government, recalled dismissing Benalla from his service after just a week
because of a “serious professional failure.”
“He caused an accident while acting as my driver and tried to flee the
scene,” Montebourg told Le Monde on Thursday.
BSS/AFP/RY/1728 hrs