It’s all kicking off now. There will be a police investigation (2 police unions are suing Benalla for impersonation), a judicial investigation and now a parliamentary investigation conducted by the "Commission des lois" of the National Assembly whose remit allows, since last night, to do just that but for one month only, they’ll kick off their work by summoning the Interior ministry on Monday. (These parliamentary investigation prerogatives were voted in last night, LREM MPs first refused to countenance the idea put forward by the opposition in the last two days but eventually caved in under the opposition and media pressure. The top tier of that committee is a little sewn up by LREM people but one of the 3 or 4 investigators is Guillaume Larrivé, a Republican MP, who's not known for taking fools gladly and will want to see results.)
Turns out too that this Benalla character wasn’t just a bodyguard but was in fact quite close to Macron, he certainly had his ear on a number of things, not earth-shattering matters but the picture emerging from inside the Élysée Palace is that Macron listened to him more than some of his advisers, probably explains why Macron inexplicably tried to cover up for him and why that bodyguard felt that sense of impunity. For instance, he is apparently the one person who persuaded Macron to (very discreetly, non officially) invite Tom Cruise to the Élysée Palace last Saturday afternoon whereas Macron’s advisers were against it (Cruise, in Paris atm to promote his latest Mission Impossible, is popular in France of course but his Church of Scientology isn’t, it’s considered a cult and is banned).
Still not a word from Macron who will find very hard to downplay this one.
Turns out too that this Benalla character wasn’t just a bodyguard but was in fact quite close to Macron, he certainly had his ear on a number of things, not earth-shattering matters but the picture emerging from inside the Élysée Palace is that Macron listened to him more than some of his advisers, probably explains why Macron inexplicably tried to cover up for him and why that bodyguard felt that sense of impunity. For instance, he is apparently the one person who persuaded Macron to (very discreetly, non officially) invite Tom Cruise to the Élysée Palace last Saturday afternoon whereas Macron’s advisers were against it (Cruise, in Paris atm to promote his latest Mission Impossible, is popular in France of course but his Church of Scientology isn’t, it’s considered a cult and is banned).
Still not a word from Macron who will find very hard to downplay this one.
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