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A French President's security officer, Emmanuel Macron, was taken into custody and removed from his post after being filmed hitting and stamping a man on the edge of a police station. Paris demonstration while he was a policeman
Alexandre Benalla was interrogated by investigators on Friday morning after attending a police station. The French public prosecutor has opened a preliminary investigation into a number of potential charges against him, including acts of violence by a public official, pretending to be a member of the police and illegally using police insignia
. terminate Benalla's employment contract after "new facts" have appeared about the incident.
Macron was criticized for the apparent slowness of his office in the face of scandal, the worst crisis in his presidency. It is damaging for the young centrist president because he is questioning his promise to lead an "exemplary" republic.
Several politicians from left to right insisted on a parliamentary inquiry into how a presidential security official might have appeared wearing a police armband and visor, committing violence between real police officers without being arrested. There was anger and surprise that senior officials of the Elysee, who learned of the incident in May, did not qualify as a crime.
The scandal erupted when Le Monde released a video Wednesday showing Benalla, a member of the security staff of the Elysee, on a square in Paris where the riot police were tearing gas and shifted to youth on May 1, at rallies in the streets of Labor Day.
Benalla, wearing a police visor, is seen seizing and dragging a woman, then dragging, hitting and trampling on an unarmed young man who seems to be in pain. The many riot police seem to let Benalla lead the violence.
A witness who saw the incident said: "What I looked at was not normal, it was extraordinary, it was not legal and it was They were not techniques used by the police.It is unacceptable, I am extremely angry and I want the justice system, the police and the administration to act against this staff member of the presidency. "
Benalla, who previously worked as a bodyguard and has never been employed as a police officer, had asked the Élysée for permission to use a day off for" observe the police operations "during the march of May 1st in Paris.
There was amazement on the part of opposition politicians that Benalla had not been immediately fired at that time. A spokesman for the Elysee said that in May, after the incident, Benalla had been suspended for two weeks and then allowed to remain in his job, redirecting himself to administrative tasks.
Despite the insistence of the Élysée, he did more than just administrative tasks. The BFM channel revealed that Benalla was in the team bus for the World Cup parade of the French football team on the Champs-Elysees this week.
A second bodyguard who was working for Macron's security operation at the Élysée was also introduced at the beginning of the video, wearing a police armband, dragging and shaking violently the young man, raising his hand as if to strike him. He was identified by the Elysee as Vincent Crase, a Reservist Constable employed by the Presidential Party, The Republic On March, who occasionally worked for the security operation of the Elysee.
Crase had "exceeded his authorization" to observe the police operation on May 1, said a spokesman, adding that he had been suspended and that the palace had stopped working with him.
The French police oversight body opened its own investigation into how the two men had been dressed as officers – wearing police armbands or a visor – and allowed to act violently without being arrested.
Left and right politicians suggested that there had been a concealment and asked why the incident had not been reported to the police when it was revealed in May.
"If we accept that anybody can pretend to be the police alongside the police, we are no longer in the rule of law," said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing France Insoumise party ( France Unbowed)
The leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, declared that there was a double standard. in the way Benalla had been treated compared to any ordinary French citizen.
Benalla was a familiar face during Macron's 2017 presidential campaign and walked regularly near the candidate as part of his security operation. When Macron won the election, Benalla was transferred to the security staff of the Elysee.
The pro-business Macron was planning to spend this week on domestic visits to try to counter its recent decline in ratings, and get rid of the lingering etiquette that 39; he is a "president of the rich" who is considered not enough
During a walk in the south-west of France, Macron was asked if the scandal of Benalla questioned the reputation of the French Republic. He said the Republic was "unalterable" and refused to answer any other questions.
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