Emmanuel Macron, The Bodyguard and The May Day Scandal!

When Emmanuel Macron finally responded to reports that his private bodyguard had assaulted May Day protesters, he took full responsibility.

“If they are looking for the person responsible, it’s me and me alone,” he told members of his party on Tuesday, five days after the incident was made public.

Yet, in the face of the biggest political crisis of his tenure, the French president remained full of bravado, declaring: “Let them come and get me.”

Critics say that the scandal centring on Alexandre Benalla, the 26-year old formerly in charge of the president’s security during trips, has highlighted the limitations of Mr Macron’s self-professed “Jupiterian” presidency.

Emmanuel Macron, The Bodyguard and The May Day Scandal!

And it has cast a light on the inner workings of Mr Macron’s highly-centralised team of trusted millennial, mostly male, aides. “Both the strength and the weakness of the president is to have a very centralised and vertical organisation around him,” said Nicolas Bouzou, head of Asterès, an economic research centre. “On the one hand it makes it efficient to launch reforms quickly but on the other hand it makes him vulnerable to affairs like Benalla because he’s not protected.”

The head of state has a behavioural problem — he expresses provocations but refuses to answer questionsThomas Guénolé

At the centre of the incident is Mr Benalla, who was caught on camera almost three months ago punching a male protester and tackling a young woman during the May Day riots. Mr Macron and his team were aware of the incident but failed to inform judicial authorities. Mr Benalla was initially suspended for two weeks but was kept on the payroll and accompanied the French football team on their World Cup victory drive down the Champs-Élysées last week. The affair only came to light after a video implicating Mr Benalla was widely circulated online and published in Le Monde newspaper.

The scandal has united opposition parties across the political spectrum, which are preparing to submit a motion of no confidence against the government.

“It’s unthinkable that Mr Macron should taunt his opponents with ‘come and get me,’” said Thomas Guénolé, a political analyst and member of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left Unbowed party. “It’s a provocation by a child king, not a statesman. The head of state has a behavioural problem — he expresses provocations but refuses to answer questions.”

Mr Guénolé said the affair is “a French Watergate . . . the main problem is not what Benalla did but the cover-up by the highest officials in Macron’s team. The accumulation of lies and the different versions of events are absolutely spectacular.”
Many questions remain unanswered, say Mr Macron’s opponents. Why did Mr Macron deem it necessary to have his own personal bodyguard when there is an established security group for the French president? Why was Mr Benalla equipped with a police helmet, armband and a two-way radio? Why did Mr Macron and his team fail to inform judicial authorities about the incident? Was it due to poor judgment, or was there a deliberate cover-up?

The scandal comes amid accusations that Mr Macron is a “president for the rich” who is arrogant and out of touch with the lives of ordinary French people. A €26,000 bill for three months of make-up, a plan to build a swimming pool at the presidential summer retreat, and a public dressing down he gave to a teenager who called him Manu have all fuelled such criticism.

Mr Macron recently ordered €500,000 worth of new banqueting plates for the Elysée Palace — around the same time his staff posted a video of him lashing out at the “insane amount of dough” pumped into social benefits.