Former Macron security guard charged with assaulting protesters throwing presidency into turmoil
A former senior security aide of Emmanuel Macron was charged on Sunday night with assaulting protesters in an incident that has thrown the presidency into turmoil.
Parliament was forced to suspend debate on a key constitutional reform bill as MPs accused the government of attempting to cover up the allegations against Alexandre Benalla.
It is the most serious political crisis since Mr Macron took office last year.
Mr Benalla was charged with assault, carrying an illegal weapon, interfering with public officials carrying out their duties, wearing police insignia without permission and illegally obtaining official CCTV surveillance video. If found guilty, he risks seven years in prison and a £40,000 fine. All the suspects were released on bail.
The accusation of a cover-up to protect Mr Benalla, described as a member of the president’s inner circle, has badly damaged the image of Mr Macron, who promised to bring “a new morality” to public life. His approval rating sank to a record low last week.
The president, who is under mounting pressure to comment publicly on the case, held a crisis meeting with senior ministers on Sunday night. He reportedly described Bella’s conduct as “shocking” and “unacceptable” and asked his chief of staff, Alexis Kohler, to propose ways of reorganising the presidential team so this type of incident would not happen again.
Gérard Collomb, the interior minister, is facing calls to resign after claims that he knew about the alleged assault but failed to act. He is to appear before a parliamentary committee of inquiry on Monday.
Mr Benalla had to cancel his wedding on Saturday as detectives questioned him and searched his home before releasing him from custody in the evening.
Mr Macron and his wife Brigitte had not planned to attend the wedding reception at a restaurant in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris, but several other presidential officials had been expected.
Mr Benalla was suspended for two weeks after the alleged assault on May 1. But he was only sacked as a top presidential security official on Friday, two days after Le Monde newspaper published mobile phone footage showing Mr Benalla wearing a police helmet and armband as he hit a man and attempted to push a woman to the ground.
Police were shown watching without intervening. Suspicions of a cover-up were fuelled by what appeared to be inconsistent answers by Mr Macron’s office.
It said Mr Benalla had been moved to administrative duties instead of security after the alleged assault, but photographs emerged during the weekend showing him at the president’s side, on July 14, Bastille Day, apparently guarding him.
Mr Benalla, 26, who earned more than £100,000 a year, was given a grace-and-favour apartment earlier this month in a palatial riverside mansion where President François Mitterrand housed his mistress and their illegitimate daughter.
He also had an official car, equipped with a revolving emergency light, a driver and a parliamentary pass to enter the National Assembly.
A reserve gendarme holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he accompanied security forces at the May Day demonstration as an observer from the president’s office.
He is reported to have told investigators that the police officer liaising with him provided him with an armband, a helmet and a police radio. It emerged that Mr Benalla, a law graduate, told friends that he dreamed of becoming a security consultant to showbiz stars.
He is said to have been obsessed with the film, The Bodyguard, in which Whitney Houston plays a singer who falls in love with a former secret service agent hired to protect her.
A former gym trainer in Evreux, a town near Paris where Mr Benalla grew up, said he had been “a skinny kid who pumped iron like one of the damned”. Prosecutors asked for Mr Benalla and Mr Crase to be barred from working in any public function or possessing weapons.
