PARIS • French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered a shake-up of his office after acknowledging failings in the way it handled a scandal over his top bodyguard, who was filmed beating a protester on May Day, a source close to the Elysee said.
The bodyguard, Alexandre Benalla, was placed under investigation on Sunday in a case that has sparked a political storm and brought the sharpest criticism Mr Macron has faced since taking power 14 months ago.
Le Monde newspaper released a video last week showing Benalla at the May 1 protests in Paris wearing a riot helmet and police tags while off duty.
In the footage, he can be seen dragging a woman away from a protest and later beating a male demonstrator. Last Friday, French media released a second video which showed Benalla also manhandling the woman. Mr Macron fired Benalla, the head of his personal security detail, last Friday but faced criticism for failing to act sooner.
The aide had initially been suspended for 15 days before being allowed to return to work.
Mr Macron met several members of his government on Sunday to discuss the case, the source said. "The President said the behaviour of Alexandre Benalla on May Day was unacceptable, shocking, and that he could not allow the idea that someone in his entourage can be above the law," the source said.
It was the first time Mr Macron was reported to have commented on the case. Acknowledging a series of malfunctions at the Elysee palace since May Day, Mr Macron asked the secretary-general of the presidency, Mr Alexis Kohler, to work on a reorganisation of his private office to prevent this happening again, the source said.
Opposition lawmakers are demanding to know how a man who was neither a police officer nor a member of the security services came to hold a central role in protecting the President, and why he was allowed to return to his duties after an initial sanction for the attack, in which he impersonated a police officer.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb washed his hands of the issue yesterday when he testified before Parliament. Forced to appear by opposition parties who blocked debate on Mr Macron's constitutional reform Bill, Mr Collomb said he had assumed Benalla had been part of Mr Macron's regular security detail.
According to an Odoxa poll released on July 17, the percentage of people saying that Mr Macron "is not a good president" rose 2 percentage points in the month to 61 per cent.
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, WASHINGTON POST
