Benalla affair

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The Benalla affair (French: affaire Benalla) or Benalla affairs (affaires Benalla or affaires Macron-Benalla)^[1] are political and judicial cases involving Alexandre Benalla (French pronunciation: [alɛksɑ̃dʁ bɛnala]), who served as a security officer and deputy chief of staff to President of France Emmanuel Macron.

In the first affair, the newspaper Le Monde identified Benalla on 18 July 2018 in footage as the person who beat up a young protester during the 2018 May Day demonstrations in Paris while impersonating a police officer. Following the publication of the report, the Paris public prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation on 19 July concerning "violence, usurpation of the functions of a police officer and using signs reserved for public authorities". On 20 July, the Élysée announced that Benalla would be dismissed. On 22 July, Benalla was placed under formal investigation additionally for "concealment of a violation of professional secrecy" and "concealment of the misuse of images from a video surveillance system". An accomplice, Vincent Crase, was also placed under formal investigation, as well as three police officers for illegally transmitting video surveillance to Benalla. Parts of the French political class media questioned the Élysée's responsibility in the case for its apparent concealment of the case from the public prosecutor.

In the second affair, it was revealed by the French online journal Mediapart at the end of 2018 that Benalla was still in possession of a number of diplomatic passports several months after he was fired from the Élysée staff.^[2] These passports allowed him to meet several African leaders, including the Chad President, Idriss Déby.

In the third affair, also called 'The Russian Contracts' by the French press, it was revealed again by Mediapart that Benalla had contracted financial ties with two Russian oligarchs during his tenure in the Élysée, including Iskander Makhmudov, a businessman who is said to have ties with the Russian mafia.^[3][4]

Both the National Assembly and Senate launched parliamentary inquiries into the affairs, with Interior Minister Gérard Collomb, Paris police chief Michel Delpuech, Department of Public Order and Traffic (DOPC) director Alain Gibelin, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and Élysée chief of staff Patrick Strzoda among those called to testify. Opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly also announced their intention to submit a motion of no confidence against the government.