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Macron security official in police visor filmed beating protester Emmanuel Macron faces scandal over security officer video
(about 4 hours later)
France’s public prosecutor has opened a preliminary inquiry after one of Emmanuel Macron’s top security officers was filmed hitting and stamping on a young man at the edge of a Paris demonstration while illegally dressed as a police officer. Emmanuel Macron is facing a damaging political scandal after one of the French president’s top security officers was filmed hitting and stamping on a young man at a Paris demonstration while dressed as a police officer.
Prosecutors are investigating possible charges of violence by a public official as well as pretending to be a police officer and illegally using police insignia. The French public prosecutor opened a preliminary inquiry on Thursday into a raft of possible charges including violence by a public official, pretending to be a member of the police and illegally using police insignia.
The video, first published by Le Monde, is potentially damaging for the French president because the security official, Alexandre Benalla, was a senior member of security staff at the Élysée Palace. Several politicians from across the political spectrum have demanded a public inquiry into how Alexandre Benalla, a security official for Macron, could have appeared wearing a police armband and visor, committing violence among real police officers without being stopped.
Benalla, who previously worked as a bodyguard and has never been employed as a police officer, had asked for permission to use a day off to “observe police operations” during May Day street marches in Paris. There was anger and surprise that senior figures at the Élysée Palace who had learned of the incident in May did not refer it to the prosecutor.
The video shows Benalla in a Paris square where riot police were teargassing and moving on young people. 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. The scandal erupted when Le Monde published a video showing Benalla, a senior member of security staff at the Élysée Palace, in a Paris square where riot police were using tear gas to move on young people during labour day street gatherings on 1 May.
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.” Benalla, wearing a police visor, is seen first grabbing and dragging a woman, then dragging, hitting and stamping on an unarmed young man who appears to be in pain. The riot police close by appear to allow Benalla to carry out the violence.
Le Monde reported that after the incident on 1 May, the president’s office suspended Benalla for two weeks and then allowed him to stay in his job, shifting him to more administrative tasks. 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.”
Benalla was a familiar face during Macron’s campaign trail for the presidency in 2017 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. Benalla, who had previously worked as a bodyguard and has never been employed as a police officer, had asked the Elysée for permission to use a day off to “observe police operations” during the May Day street marches in Paris.
The scandal worsened when the French TV channel BFM reported that Benalla was involved with the security operation this week for the French football team’s World Cup victory parade in an open-top bus down the Champs-Élysées. There was stupefaction from opposition politicians that Benalla had not been sacked. An Élysée spokesman said that in May, at the time of the incident, Benalla had been suspended for two weeks but allowedto stay in his job, shifting to more administrative tasks.
It emerged that he had continued to take part in other high-profile presidential security operations, including the burial at the Pantheon this month of the women’s rights defender and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil. But the French TV channel BFM revealed that Benalla was on the team bus for the French football team’s World Cup victory parade down the Champs-Élysées on Monday.
A second man, with a bald head and sunglasses propped on his forehead, who is seen violently dragging a young man at the start of the video and raising his hand as if to hit him, was identified by the Elysée spokesman as Vincent Crase. He is a reservist gendarme employed by the president’s party, La République En Marche, who also occasionally worked for the Elysée’s security operation. On Thursday night, despite the mounting scandal, Benalla still had a job and an office at the Elysée.
Crase had exceeded his authorisation to observe the police operation on 1 May, said the spokesman, adding that he has been suspended and the president’s office has stopped working with him. A second bodyguard who worked for Macron’s security operation at the Elysée also featured in the video, wearing a police armband and violently dragging and shaking the same young man Benalla had attacked, raising his hand as if to hit him.
Opposition MPs 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. He was identified by the Elysée as Vincent Crase, a reservist gendarme employed by the president’s party, La République En Marche, who also occasionally worked for the Elysée’s security operation.
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. Crase had “exceeded his authorisation” to observe the police operation on 1 May, a spokesman said, adding that he was suspended and the Elysée had stopped working with him.
The pro-business Macron 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” who is seen as not doing enough to help those in need. 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.
The scandal over Benalla is potentially so damaging because it calls into question the workings of the state, and how a security official from the presidential palace was allowed to pose as a police officer, violently abuse a young person and the incident not be reported as a crime at the time. 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 in May.
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”. “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,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon leader of the leftwing party France Unbowed.
The president refused to comment on the investigation and the video, saying only: “I’m here with the people.” The centre-right MP Jean-Christophe Lagarde said Benalla should quit the Elysée. “Why is he still there? He is sullying the French presidency.”
Alexis Corbière, an MP for leftwing party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), said Benalla deserved “to be punished with a prison sentence, at least a suspended sentence and with very heavy sanctions”. The Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, said there was 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, he was transferred to the security staff at the Élysée.
Macron 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” who is seen as not doing enough to help those in need.
The scandal over Benalla is potentially so damaging because it calls into question the workings of the state and Macron’s promise of an “exemplary” republic.
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Emmanuel MacronEmmanuel Macron
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