B2 The Daily of Geopolitical Europe. News. Files. Reflections. Reports

Blog AnalysisFundamental rightsgovernments

Some observations on the Benalla case

(B2) The words 'state affair' are not overstated when the 'Alexandre Benalla' affair is mentioned, the name of this 'advisor' to the presidency of the Republic caught in the act of intervening during a a May Day demonstration to forcefully arrest two people. Several points are relevant

It is not in itself a 'borderline' bludgeoning or the usurpation of police signs which are in themselves worrying, but the interference of a private person in the public security system, by decision of the Elysée, and his stubbornness in denying all the facts until the case broke. In this case, if there has been a drift, it is not from a man, but from a government device.

1. That an adviser to the president liaises with the security teams is the very logic of a power team. That he gets involved in security on the ground, goes there, helmeted, equipped with a police armband, to go and see a demonstration of opponents up close, is strange to say the least, and intervenes there on his own initiative while police forces were indeed present on the spot and there was no specific reason (legitimate defense or danger to others) for an intervention.

2. Entrusting the security of the President of the Republic to an unknown person who has no proven experience or official legitimacy (1) rather than a specialized team, made up of experienced, supervised people, subject to a disciplinary framework, constitutes the first plan of a political fault. Either we consider that the GSPR - the Security Group of the Presidency of the Republic - is incapable, incompetent... It is then dissolved or reformed. Either this institution is responsible for security.

3. The absence of real sanctions when the facts are revealed is, to say the least, symptomatic of a feeling of impunity, which reveals a total disconnection from reality. The executive's confused defense raises more questions than it answers.

4. Coming to reproach police officials for having obeyed an Elysée adviser is disturbing to say the least. In the verticality of the Republic (which was not born with the arrival of Emmanuel Macron), when an Elysée adviser makes a request, it is often difficult for an official, even a senior official, to refuse to deliberate way. There is no drift or cronyism, but just respect for the hierarchical rule of the Fifth Republic.

5. We had known Emmanuel Macron much more sharp and ruthless towards the Chief of the Defense Staff, who had only done his duty, even if he had expressed certain political disagreements. His leniency, even a defense implicating the opposition or the press is surprising, even worrying.

The outcome of this case is unknown. But what is certain is that it breaks the image of the 'new world', of transparency, of modernity that Emmanuel Macron wanted to embody and install. Like a shattered mirror, the Benalla affair thus has a much wider impact than the facts it contains which, as it stands, are quite benign compared to other 'state affairs' experienced by the Fifth Republic.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) The lack of appointment in the official gazette is witness to this

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

s2Member®