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FRANCE-POLITICS-ASSAULT-POLICE
France interior minister to face griling over Macron security aide assault
PARIS, July 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – France’s interior minister Gerard Collomb
was due to appear before parliament on Monday, as opposition MPs accused the
government of a cover-up over a former top presidential security aide who was
charged with gang violence.
In the most damaging scandal to hit President Emmanuel Macron since he took
office last year, Alexandre Benalla was charged Sunday after he was caught on
video assaulting May Day protesters.
An employee of the ruling party, Vincent Crase, was also charged over the
incident, with the footage going viral on social media.
The president has yet to comment publicly on the scandal. But after a
meeting of top government ministers at the Elysee late Sunday, a close aide
said Macron considers the facts in Benalla’s case as “unacceptable”.
The source added that Macron will speak out about the matter “when he
thinks it necessary” and that he promised it “had not been and will not be
treated with impunity”.
Benalla was initially punished in May with a two-week suspension from
active duty, the president’s office said, yet he continued to appear in
Macron’s security details.
Benalla, 26, was fired Friday after video footage emerged showing him
hitting a man at least twice as riot police looked on while breaking up a May
Day protest in Paris.
The opposition accuses Macron, who came to power on pledges to restore
transparency and integrity to the nation’s highest office in order to ensure
a “republic of responsibility”, of covering up for Benalla.
The Law Commission of the lower house of parliament will publicly grill
Interior Minister Collomb from 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Monday, after media
reports suggested he knew about Benalla’s assault but kept quiet.
If true, opposition MPs warned they would demand his resignation.
Three high-ranking police officers, already suspended on suspicion they
illegally gave Benalla video surveillance footage of the incidents to help
him try to clear his name, have been charged with misappropriation of the
images and violating professional secrecy.
Benalla, who was shown in video footage wearing a police helmet with visor
as well as a police armband, was additionally charged with impersonating a
police officer, as well as complicity in the unauthorised use of surveillance
footage.
– Parliament revolt –
After publishing the first video of the incident last Wednesday, French
daily Le Monde posted a second video showing 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, Macron had tweeted that “everything will
be done so that those responsible will be identified and held accountable for
their actions”.
In a third video, published by the Mediapart investigative news site,
police officers are seen kicking and punching a 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.
“If Macron doesn’t explain himself the Benalla affair will become the
Macron affair,” far-right leader Marine Le Pen posted on Twitter.
“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 asked in an editorial Sunday.
But ruling Republic on the Move (LREM) party spokesman Gabriel Attal
defended the president’s silence.
If Macron speaks now, “we’d have indignant commentators everywhere saying
his comments could influence the inquiry,” Attal said.
– ‘Macron defenceless’ –
Adding to the controversy, Le Monde reported Friday that despite his
suspension 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 Benalla’s home in the Paris suburb of Issy-Les-
Moulineaux, where a city hall official said Benalla was supposed to have
married on Saturday.
The scandal could hardly have come at a worse time for Macron, whose
approval ratings fell to a record low of 39 percent last week, defying
analysts’ expectations of a post-World Cup bump.
“Macron defenceless”, the Journal du Dimanche said in a front-page headline
on Sunday over a picture of the president and Benalla.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1151 hrs