A scandal at the Élysée Palace this weekend as French president Emmanuel Macron gets heat over newly released video footage from a May Day protest.
The videos showed Alexandre Benalla, the head of Macron’s personal security detail, assaulting two citizens while he was off-duty and attending the event simply to oversee operations. Though the government had access to these videos May 2nd, they were kept quiet, and Benalla was suspended for a mere 15 days before returning to his normal duties. The footage wasn’t released until July 18th, and Benalla was fired two days after. But France is asking, why didn’t Macron do something sooner? Why did he wait until a media storm forced him to act before firing Benalla?
An investigation has been launched into the event to determine exactly how and why this was swept under the rug. But no matter what comes out, seated at the witness stand is not exactly a good look for the French president.
