This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

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.



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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emmanuel Macron waves from his car during a visit to the Dordogne region on Thursday. Photograph: Nicolas Tucat/AFP/Getty Images

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, 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.

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.

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.

On Thursday night, despite the mounting scandal, Benalla still had a job and an office at the Elysée.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emmanuel Macron is guarded by Alexandre Benalla during his campaign for the French presidential election last year. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AP

The centre-right MP Jean-Christophe Lagarde said Benalla should quit the Elysée. “Why is he still there? He is sullying the French presidency.”

The Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, said there was a double standard in how Benalla had been treated compared with any ordinary French citizen.

France to tighten security at protests after May Day violence Read more

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.