11:15 – Benalla case: series of indictments in sight, open political crisis

The political crisis provoked by the Benalla affair continues to grow, feeding on the silence of Emmanuel Macron and the progress of the investigation, with a possible indictment on Sunday of his former collaborator , pending Gerard Collomb's hearing on Monday at the Assembly

Five suspects in total are to be presented to an investigating judge during the day. This is Alexandre Benalla, filmed striking or mistreating protesters on May 1, in custody since Friday morning, Vincent Crase, LREM employee at his side during Labor Day, and three police officers suspected of to have transmitted to Mr. Benalla images of video-surveillance.

The woman and the man struck on May 1 asked to be heard later by the investigators.

Whereas the revelations follow one another on this file, in particular on the benefits granted to the former 26-year-old employee (from a staff house on the quai Branly to a badge to access the Palais Bourbon semicircle), the head of state, facing his most serious crisis Since the beginning of the five-year period, it has remained silent.

According to the Journal du Dimanche, Emmanuel Macron spoke to his chargé de mission on the phone, fired Friday morning, since the revelations of Le Monde on Wednesday evening. 19659002] While the Elysee spokesman Bruno Roger-Petit had said Thursday that he had been after May 1 "removed from office in the organization of the President's travel security", Mr. Benalla appears on several recent pictures alongside Mr. Macron or the presidential couple, especially July 13 in Giverny (Eure). The Elysee no longer makes any communication.

The tenors of the opposition went to the front to ask the president "accounts", in the words of Laurent Wauquiez (LR). The case is "at the level of Watergate", considers the leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

But according to the spokesman of the Republic on the march Gabriel Attal, if the president expressed "on this case, there would be commentators everywhere to be indignant about the weight of his potential words on investigations in progress. "It seems that (his word) would interfere," also considers Marc Fesneau, leader of MoDem deputies, interviewed Sunday by France Info.

– "Macron-Benalla Case" –

The first to give some explanations should be the Minister of the Interior, expected Monday at 10:00 am before the Committee on the Laws of the Assembly, which has the prerogatives investigation. Opposition MPs, who accuse him of lying last Thursday in the Senate, will not fail to put him on the grill.

According to Le Parisien, a crisis lunch was held Saturday around Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee, bringing together Gerard Collomb and Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet.

This is on the front line of the Assembly, in theory on the draft constitutional revision, whose examination has been blocked since Thursday evening.

The hemicycle was still Sunday morning the scene of a standoff around what the boss of the LR group Christian Jacob called the "Macron-Benalla affair".

In a tense atmosphere, the opposition again demanded the arrival of the Prime Minister or "at least" the Secretary of State for Relations with Parliament.

"We do not let go," it was said in the ranks of the majority, while Saturday night, the night session was cut short after hours of dialogue deaf.

The elected UDI-Agir have for their part decided not to "participate in this sad spectacle". An unprecedented scene marked the spirits: Hall of Four Columns Saturday late in the day, the President of the National Rally Marine Le Pen and Christophe Castaner had a sharp altercation, the first lamenting that his "LREM friends refuse" to summon him before the commission of inquiry.