For a journalist covering France, it is - as my guitar-playing neighbour Jean-Louis put it between his trio New Deal's superb sets at the Gecko bar - 'un cadeau'. President Emmanuel Macron's trusted security chief is caught administering summary justice to a couple of protestors at the May day demo in Paris. The Elysee, in turn, is caught - or at least suspected of being caught - in flagrant cover-up mode.What the unfortunate pair had done to warrant Alexandre Benalla's heavy-handed treatment is unclear; a photographer who witnessed the events from his nearby flat said they seemed peaceful enough, Benalla may feel they were a threat to civilisation as we know it. We'll see (update: new footage shows them acting like voyous; their lawyer insists they were just a couple out for a drink and threw whatever came to hand when they felt the police were attacking them).
As usual, my thanks to the editor of The National for allowing me to reproduce my work here ...
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