The France thread

[gnome]

They were just charging the rotation premium.

[Witness]

[youtube][/youtube]

[Witness]

The Montparnasse train station in Paris has a complete computer failure (those used for switching the track points): they were in the process of upgrading the software.
Another had already happened during the week-end July 29^th/August 1^st, smack in the vacation departures.

No trains to Brittany, and as I know the SNCF (state train company) getting information on site is near impossible. Lots of people marooned.

Le Monde published this cartoon:

https://s2.postimg.org/4p6trdm09/TRAINS-550.jpg
– As soon as the trains go again, you'll be evicted!
– That's OK, then!…

One could contrast that with Japan…

:mrgreen:

[Witness]

↑ Ah, after the eroticism museum in Paris (I think I blathered about that).

Coming up: Corsica. The two "départements" have been fused and elections held for the new local assembly. The "nationalists" (roughly "Corsica to the Corsicans but let's keep our advantages"; they are already experts at milking the EU) won in a landslide… :mrgreen:

[Witness]

I hear you. :mrgreen:

https://s2.postimg.org/vtxs50wex/cb4959 ... f040be.jpg

[Witness]

The French medias are full of it: Johnny Hallyday is dead. Dunno if he's at least vaguely known ultra-pond, so:

[youtube][/youtube]

National funeral for the popular idol ( :mrgreen: ):

[youtube][/youtube]

Media consensus and "intellectuals'" opinion: you don't like him because you're a grumpy old fart, or worse.

[Doctor X]

https://i.imgur.com/k4zJ43F.jpg

--J.D.

[Witness]

Bannon Tells Le Pen's Party: 'Let Them Call You Racist'

Steve Bannon continued his European tour Saturday as a surprise speaker for the struggling National Front party in Paris, NBC News reports. The former White House strategist paced the stage for half an hour, bathing in applause and urging members to embrace some of their critics' worst epithets. "Let them call you racist," he says. "Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor." The ex-Breitbart chairman also slammed central governments and central banks and said that "history is on our side" in the battle against "globalists."

A last-minute addition, Bannon spiced up an otherwise "technical party convention" that restored Marine Le Pen to power following the party's hard loss in last year's elections, France24 reports. The congress also stripped her father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, of an honorary "president for life" position (he lost his official leadership role three years ago for making anti-Semitic remarks).

http://www.newser.com/story/256425/bann ... acist.html

https://s9.postimg.org/fth2g1d1b/116966 ... 130021.jpg

[Witness]

https://s7.postimg.org/drus8dk4r/Csaz_Xm_EWc_AADPg9.jpg

Former French president Sarkozy held over Gaddafi cash inquiry

PARIS (Reuters) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was questioned on Tuesday by police investigating whether late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign.

An official in the French judiciary said Sarkozy, 63, was held in custody in Nanterre, west of Paris.

It is the second major judicial investigation to fall on Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007-2012. He already faces trial on separate charges of illicit spending overruns during his failed re-election campaign in 2012.
[…]
France opened an inquiry into the Libya case in 2013, after reports by French website Mediapart based on claims by a Franco-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine, who said he had transferred 5 million euros ($6 million) from Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi to Sarkozy’s campaign chief.

Months after he took office in 2007, Sarkozy became the first Western leader in decades to host a visit by Gaddafi, who pitched his trademark Bedouin-style tent next to the Elysee Palace. Several business deals were signed.

However, Sarkozy was later one of the chief advocates of a NATO-led military campaign that resulted in Gaddafi’s overthrow and killing at the hands of rebel forces in 2011.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fran ... SKBN1GW0RH

Made me laugh. :twisted:

[sparks]

https://s7.postimg.org/drus8dk4r/Csaz_Xm_EWc_AADPg9.jpg

Former French president Sarkozy held over Gaddafi cash inquiry

PARIS (Reuters) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was questioned on Tuesday by police investigating whether late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign.

An official in the French judiciary said Sarkozy, 63, was held in custody in Nanterre, west of Paris.

It is the second major judicial investigation to fall on Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007-2012. He already faces trial on separate charges of illicit spending overruns during his failed re-election campaign in 2012.
[…]
France opened an inquiry into the Libya case in 2013, after reports by French website Mediapart based on claims by a Franco-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine, who said he had transferred 5 million euros ($6 million) from Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi to Sarkozy’s campaign chief.

Months after he took office in 2007, Sarkozy became the first Western leader in decades to host a visit by Gaddafi, who pitched his trademark Bedouin-style tent next to the Elysee Palace. Several business deals were signed.

However, Sarkozy was later one of the chief advocates of a NATO-led military campaign that resulted in Gaddafi’s overthrow and killing at the hands of rebel forces in 2011.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fran ... SKBN1GW0RH

Made me laugh. :twisted:

Not a real handshake.

Finger pull. :o

[Anaxagoras]

"Held in custody"? I guess they mean business.

[Witness]

Not a real handshake.

Finger pull. :o

I noticed that too: is there some special meaning to it? :?

[Witness]

"Held in custody"? I guess they mean business.

I really hope so! :twisted: Sarkozy is in the Trump/Berlusconi category of neo (or PoMo) politicians, albeit not so rich and particularly vulgar. And greedy. And bling addicted.

And, as the article mentions, already in trouble for his campaign "expenses". Corruption is a constant in his party (which has changed name something like five times since De Gaulle) and for Paris' mayors – which Sarkozy was –, e. g. Balkany:

Depuis décembre 2013, Patrick Balkany et sa femme Isabelle sont poursuivis à travers plusieurs affaires judiciaires, notamment pour déclarations mensongères, blanchiments de fraudes fiscales et corruption.

"Since December 2013, Patrick Balkany and his wife Isabelle are the targets of multiple legal cases, particularly for false statements, laundering of tax evasion and corruption."

Charming people who certainly had the interests of their constituents at heart.

The Socialists are no better, of course.

[Witness]

Macron seeks to cut number of France MPs by a third

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed a radical overhaul of the country's government.

Speaking at the historic Palace of Versailles, he said he planned to cut the number of lawmakers by a third.

Doing so would produce a more efficient government and put France on a "radically new path", said Mr Macron.

The French president says he has a broad mandate after sweeping wins in presidential and parliamentary elections this year.

If his proposed changes were not passed by parliament within a year, he said he would take the decision to a referendum.

In his 90-minute speech, the 39-year-old leader vowed to return a "collective dignity" to France.

"In the past, procedures have taken preference over results, rules over initiative, living off the public purse over fairness," he said.

The proposed cuts would reduce the number of National Assembly members from 577 to 385, and the numbers of Senate members from 348 to 232.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40483744

I imagine the outraged howls… :lmao:

[Grammatron]

I guess French Sixth Republic is overdue.

[sparks]

Not a real handshake.

Finger pull. :o

I noticed that too: is there some special meaning to it? :?

Gay.

Not that there ... is ...

[Doctor X]

I prefer the Japanese Surrender French Original. Two prominent actors. Of course, Hollywood fucked it up with the execrable Birdcage. Missed the point, really.

The "point" is, as in this scene, Ugo confesses with whom he had his son a long time ago. In another scene he was drunk, she was in his bed after a show, and, "I thought, 'why not try it with a woman?'" Much more subtle than the 'murican since the other "point" is it is two aging men living together. One fears he is no longer attractive and wonders if his partner will seek others or even the mother of his child.

Also, the son is marrying a brow-beaten child of a leader of the party: "The Pillars of Morality." They hope a marriage to a religious conservative family will turn the press from the fact that their President.

Died.

In bed.

With a prostitute.

An underaged prostitute.

Who is black.

And his last words were, "don't forget, Chocolate, the money's on the table."

Very good musical and the French can at least do comedy.

This is important.

In the rain.

That lies mainly on the plain.



Merde

--J.D.

[Rob Lister]

Not a real handshake.

Finger pull. :o

I noticed that too: is there some special meaning to it? :?

Gay.

Not that there ... is ...

Don't lie to him.

While your ring finger is the only one that has a vein that connects directly with your heart, your index is the only finger that has a nerve running directly to your rectum. Pulling the index opens mechanically activated ion channels, letting sodium ions in, sending salt directly down to the rectum. Your rectum receives that sprinkle of salt, irritating it and causing it to open and release whatever gas it contained.

Evolutionarily we lost the ability to be able to rectally taste the salt when our frontal lobes had their most recent growth phase, but occasionally you'll find some people who have a rare genetic allelle that still allows them to engage in rectal salt tasting. They are concentrated in Iceland, mostly.

[gnome]

I prefer the Japanese Surrender French Original. Two prominent actors. Of course, Hollywood fucked it up with the execrable Birdcage. Missed the point, really.

The "point" is, as in this scene, Ugo confesses with whom he had his son a long time ago. In another scene he was drunk, she was in his bed after a show, and, "I thought, 'why not try it with a woman?'" Much more subtle than the 'murican since the other "point" is it is two aging men living together. One fears he is no longer attractive and wonders if his partner will seek others or even the mother of his child.

Also, the son is marrying a brow-beaten child of a leader of the party: "The Pillars of Morality." They hope a marriage to a religious conservative family will turn the press from the fact that their President.

Died.

In bed.

With a prostitute.

An underaged prostitute.

Who is black.

And his last words were, "don't forget, Chocolate, the money's on the table."

Very good musical and the French can at least do comedy.

This is important.

In the rain.

That lies mainly on the plain.



Merde

--J.D.

I thought all those points came through very well in the American version. But, I should probably see the French version to get my mind right.

[Grammatron]

The American version is great and Doctor X is just being a hater.

Everyone else liked the movie just fine, just ask Doctor X's mom, she know's everyone...

[asthmatic camel]

https://i.imgur.com/fzzKs2x.png

A must have.

“there is a French version of the story, and a true one.”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French

“When a Quebecker is interviewed for French TV, he or she is often subtitled in ‘normal’ French, as if the language they speak in francophone Canada is so barbarous that Parisians won’t be able to understand”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French

“it must have been hard making a silent movie about a girl who hears voices.)”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French

“It was Voltaire who said that ‘in a government, you need both shepherds and butchers.’ The problem in France was that the butchers kept killing the shepherds, while the sheep turned cannibal.”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French


“His posturing for independence came to its logical climax when in 1966 he ordered all foreign troops out of France, arguing that in the event of war, he would not let French soldiers bow to American command as they had been forced to do in World War Two. The way de Gaulle announced his new policy has gone down in history. Apparently the Général phoned the American President, Lyndon Johnson, to tell him that France was opting out of NATO, and that consequently all American military personnel had to be removed from French soil. Taking part in the conference call was Dean Rusk, the US Secretary of State, and Johnson told Rusk to reply: ‘Does that include those buried in it?”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French

“The Frenchmen tried to explain that sexual intercourse between males was taboo (despite anything the Brits might have told them about French sailors),”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French

“But at the same time, any mention of the history of Quebec rouses burning anti-British and anti-American outrage in a French person’s heart, as if someone was talking about a favourite café of theirs that had been turned into a Starbucks. Canada”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French

“This is a very French trait. Today, if a big manufacturing company is in trouble, it will parachute in a graduate of one of France’s grandes écoles, someone who has studied business theory and maths for ten years but never actually been inside a factory. The important thing to the French is not experience, it is leadership – or, more exactly, French-style leadership, which mainly involves ignoring advice from anyone with lots of experience but no French grande école on their CV.”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French


“The prospect of one day being hauled out of the canal by yet another old enemy was hard for France to swallow, even more so when British and French defence specialists discussed their exit strategy in case of an overwhelming Soviet attack, and the Brits proposed a massive evacuation via Dunkirk.”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French

“Philippe also brought along musicians - mainly trumpeters and drummers - to scare the enemy. Even then, French music was known to terrify the English.”
― Stephen Clarke, 1000 Years of Annoying the French
tags: french-music, humour, philippe-vi

[Witness]

I guess French Sixth Republic is overdue.

That classy understatement wins you a :figamagee: !

[Witness]

Found no English article on that, so I'll summarize:


France having decided that most everybody (nearly 90% of high school students, strict instructions regarding the marks) should earn the "baccalauréat" – which allows entering the University – but the means not being on par with that particular project, the selection has been sneakily shifted from that diploma (well, "diploma" nowadays) to the Universities.

Putative students are now required to (try to) find some (theoretically available) posts in accordance with their interests somewhere, this with a "Parcoursup" software.

And the teachers are required to sift through the applications (something like thousands of files to retain the 100 "best", at least that's what they say).

Result: 200 teachers have signed an open letter proclaiming they just won't do that. Lack of time & means, and "not our job".

While others are openly going for a kind of "soft chaos": everybody "1^st ex aequo", welcome to the University.


Two things should be noted:
– selection was always present, and with the demise of the "baccalauréat" as a barrier the guillotine fell only end of the second, sometimes third, year. Good for unemployment statistics. (And the profs didn't seem to mind that.) Very bad for the students who had been fooled into believing they could succeed there.
– the "Grandes Écoles", the part of French higher education which still works as it should, are quite difficult to enter and also well-endowed, of course.

[Anaxagoras]

[Witness]

↑ Cute! :)

[Doctor X]

Everyone else liked the movie just fine, just ask Doctor X's mom, she know's everyone...

She did enjoy it . . . as you know :oops:





I must admit you do fill out the maid's costume. . . .

--J.D.

[Witness]

Macron's overtures to Catholic Church make waves in secular France

PARIS (Reuters) - Emmanuel Macron has blurred a line that has kept French government free of religious intervention for generations, critics said on Tuesday, after he called for stronger ties between the state and the Catholic Church.

The issue is particularly sensitive in historically Catholic France, where matters of faith and state were separated by law in 1905 and which is now home to Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish communities.

The president’s remark might have raised fewer eyebrows had he left it until later in a one-hour speech on Monday night to Church dignitaries in Paris, where he began by saying that just arranging such a gathering was an achievement in itself.

“If we’ve done so, it must be because somewhere we share the feeling that the link between Church and State has been damaged, that the time has come for us, both you and me, to mend it,” he said.

Critics, many his natural political opponents, took the president to task.

“It took three centuries of civil war and struggle to get to where we are and there’s absolutely no reason to turn the clock back... because of an intellectual whim of the president’s,” said hardline leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon, a candidate in the election that brought Macron to power last May.
[…]
Raised in a non-religious family, Macron was baptised a Roman Catholic at his own request when he was 12.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fran ... KKBN1HH2L3

Analysis (as Abdul would say): he has pissed off his left wing, and things aren't going well either with the state-controlled and, in principle, overarching official Muslim organization (Paris Mosque), so back to traditional values & support.

[Witness]

Measles outbreak (insufficient vaccination), declared cases per week:

https://i.imgur.com/x6xD8T2.jpg
https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/sante/e ... ion_122995

[Witness]

After the lid, the pipes:

Quality issue detected with Flamanville EPR welds

EDF said the first quality deviation in the welding of the main secondary system was detected on 21 March during the initial comprehensive inspection, a regulatory requirement prior to the reactor starting up. This inspection includes an examination of the welds in the primary and secondary systems, and allows an initial reference state of the plant to be established before it begins operating.

Each of the welds had been declared compliant by the consortium of contractors in charge of manufacturing the system, EDF noted.
[…]
"Following the current checks and the licensing process by ASN, EDF will be able to specify whether the project requires an adjustment to its timetable and its costs," EDF said.

Construction work began in December 2007 on the 1650 MWe unit at the Flamanville site in Normandy - where two reactors have been operating since 1986 and 1987. The dome of the reactor building was put in place in July 2013 and the reactor vessel was installed in January 2014. The reactor was originally expected to start commercial operation in 2013, but owing to delays this is now expected late this year.

EDF's roadmap for the Flamanville 3 project, drawn up in September 2015, sees fuel loading and start-up of the reactor at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. It also sets the project cost at €10.5 billion (at the 2015 rate, excluding interim interest).

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Qu ... 04184.html

As Le Monde vrote:

Quant au coût de ce prototype, il a triplé depuis les premiers devis, passant de 3,3 milliards d’euros annoncés en 2005 à 10,5 milliards d’euros.

"The price of this prototype has tripled since the first estimates from 2005 from 3.3 to 10.5 billions euros."

Happy taxpayers! :mrgreen:

[Witness]

State theft:

France seizes France.com from man who’s had it since ‘94, so he sues

A French-born American has now sued his home country because, he claims, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has illegally seized a domain that he’s owned since 1994: France.com.

In the mid-1990s, Jean-Noël Frydman bought France.com from Web.com and set up a website to serve as a "digital kiosk" for Francophiles and Francophones in the United States.

For over 20 years, Frydman built up a business (also known as France.com), often collaborating with numerous official French agencies, including the Consulate General in Los Angeles and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, sometime around 2015, that very same ministry initiated a lawsuit in France in an attempt to wrest control of the France.com domain away from Frydman. Web.com locked the domain, and Frydman even roped in the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law School to intervene on his behalf.

By September 2017, the Paris Court of Appeals ruled that France.com was violating French trademark law. Armed with this ruling, lawyers representing the French state wrote to Web.com demanding that the domain be handed over.

Finally, on March 12, 2018, Web.com abruptly transferred ownership of the domain to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The company did so without any formal notification to Frydman and no compensation.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/201 ... comments=1

Will increase Francophily… :mrgreen:

[Witness]

Giant worms chez moi! Hammerhead flatworms (Platyhelminthes, Geoplanidae, Bipalium spp., Diversibipalium spp.) in metropolitan France and overseas French territories

Introduction

Land planarians (Platyhelminthes, Geoplanidae) are predatory soil-associated animals. Although small species (generally less than 1 cm in length) such as Microplana spp. or Rhynchodemus spp. are autochthonous in Europe (Álvarez-Presas et al., 2012), large species are not. Reports of invasive alien flatworms in Europe in recent years (Sluys, 2016) include Arthurdendyus triangulatus from New Zealand, Platydemus manokwari originally from Papua New Guinea, Obama nungara from Brazil, and Parakontikia ventrolineata, Caenoplana coerulea, and Caenoplana bicolor from Australia (see Table 1 for authors of taxa and key references). All these species are conspicuous animals, several centimetres in length. Even larger are the species of Bipalium (and close genera), or ‘hammerhead flatworms’: these can be longer than 20 cm (Von Graff, 1899) and one species even attains a length of 1 m in elongated state (Kawakatsu, Makino & Shirasawa, 1982). In this paper, we focus on these giant species, and we report new findings obtained mainly by citizen science in metropolitan France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint Barthélemy), South America (French Guiana), and Indian Ocean (La Réunion, Mayotte). Five species were found, among which three can be attributed to known binomial taxa (Bipalium kewense, B. vagum, and Diversibipalium multilineatum) and two that are unnamed.

https://peerj.com/articles/4672/

https://i.imgur.com/9zmSwEx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7vanW8M.jpg

(You will have noticed the Obama genus, right?)

[ed]

Everyone else liked the movie just fine, just ask Doctor X's mom, she know's everyone...

She did enjoy it . . . as you know :oops:





I must admit you do fill out the maid's costume. . . .

--J.D.

If you think he does, you should see me in it. :lol:

[Witness]

Slow-grinding wheels:

France asked U.S. not to bomb Lafarge factory in Syria in 2014: emails

PARIS (Reuters) - France asked the United States in 2014 not to bomb a Lafarge cement plant in northern Syria, an area which was at the time controlled by Islamic State, emails that are part of an investigation into the company’s Syria operations show.

French prosecutors last year launched a probe into the suspected “financing of a terrorist enterprise” by the cement group in Syria. The company admitted last year it had paid armed groups to keep a factory operating.

“This French investment should be protected,” France’s Syria envoy, Franck Gellet, who is based in Paris, said in a Sept. 19, 2014 email to senior foreign ministry officials, referring to the Lafarge plant about 87 km (54 miles) from Raqqa.

“It seems legitimate that we ask Washington not to do anything about this site without checking with us first,” Gellet said in the email, that included the plant’s GPS coordinates.

The email is among a cache of correspondence sent by Gellet, Lafarge’s then security chief Jean-Claude Veillard and other French officials, seen by Reuters.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lafar ... KKBN1HW2E9

Sarkozy ally Eric Woerth indicted in Libya campaign financing probe

Eric Woerth, who was budget minister and later labour minister in Sarkozy’s government, is facing charges of “complicity in illegal campaign financing”, said his lawyer, Jean-Yves Leborgne.

“This indictment is based on the discovery of cash sums, very small if not outright ridiculous considering the cost of a presidential campaign,” Leborgne said.

He added that Woerth had told investigators that cash payments totalling some 30,000 euros ($35,000) had been given to campaign workers.

Woerth, a prominent rightwing MP who heads parliament’s finance committee, has previously admitted the campaign received cash payments which he said were anonymous donations received by post, a claim contested by others questioned in the case.

Sarkozy has denied claims that he accepted millions of euros from the former Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, some of it delivered in cash-stuffed suitcases.

http://www.france24.com/en/20180529-fra ... cing-probe

[Witness]

Pope Francis meets French President Macron

At a private audience in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on Tuesday, Pope Francis and France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, exchange gifts and discuss the environment, migration, and disarmament.

[…]

Honorary Canon of Lateran Basilica

Later in the afternoon, Emmanuel Macron received the title “First and Only Honorary Canon” of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome.

French leaders automatically inherit the title of “Honorary Canon” under a tradition that dates back to the 15th century when France was a monarchy. Cardinal-elect Angelo De Donatis presided over the ceremony and conferred the title on President Macron.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news ... ience.html

https://i.imgur.com/CleuE63.jpg

Should please the catholic Macron. :mrgreen:

[Witness]

They could at least wear the same colors as the Swiss guards! :x

[Grammatron]

You're right, that red the cardinal is wearing is totally clashing with the guards'

[Witness]

Slow grinding wheels, next part:

French Firm Probed For Funding Jihadists In Syria For Profit

French rights group Sherpa, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said it was the first time that a company anywhere in the world had been charged with complicity in crimes against humanity.

French cement giant Lafarge was charged Thursday with complicity in crimes against humanity and financing a terrorist organization for paying millions to jihadist groups, including the Islamic State, to keep a factory in Syria open during the war.

A legal source said the company, which paid the armed groups through middlemen, has also been charged with endangering the lives of former employees at the cement plant in Jalabiya, northern Syria.

The allegations against Lafarge, which merged with Swiss firm Holcim in 2015, are the most serious against a French company in years.

Lafarge was ordered to hand over US$35 million to authorities as a security deposit ahead of the trial.

Eight Lafarge executives, including former CEO Bruno Laffont, have already been charged with financing a terrorist group and/or endangering the lives of others over Lafarge's activities in Syria between 2011 and 2015.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ ... -0028.html

[Witness]

French kings had the reputation of curing scrofula by the contact of their hands.

https://i.imgur.com/cBlbBmC.jpg

I see the tradition hasn't died. :lmao:

[Witness]

What a magnificent fail:

https://i.imgur.com/N6Uj3oG.jpg

:mrgreen:

[Witness]

Scandal brewing around Macron:

Macron aide: French MPs grill minister in beating row

France's interior minister has been grilled by MPs over his handling of a policing scandal in which a presidential security aide was filmed assaulting a demonstrator on 1 May.

Gérard Collomb said he learned of the video on 2 May and did not report it to prosecutors because it was a matter for President Emmanuel Macron's staff.

Mr Macron fired the aide, Alexandre Benalla, on Friday, but MPs want to know why he did not act sooner.

Mr Benalla, 26, faces several charges.

He is accused of assault with an accomplice, interfering in police work, impersonating a police officer and illegally receiving surveillance footage.

On Monday Mr Benalla, who was Mr Macron's top bodyguard during last year's election campaign, defended his actions, claiming that he was "lending a hand" to the riot officers at the scene after he was "invited to observe" their operations.

He added that he believed his behaviour was being exploited for "media and political ends", his lawyers said.

Vincent Crase, a security agent for Mr Macron's La République en Marche (Republic on the Move) party, has also been charged.

Three police officers were charged and questioned on Saturday for allegedly passing surveillance footage to Mr Benalla to try to prove his innocence.

Mr Collomb told MPs: "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of Mr Benalla."

He said his staff had informed Mr Macron's administration about the incident and "it was up to them to respond". "I did not pursue this matter any further."

Besides the MPs' inquiry, the police disciplinary body, IGPN, is also investigating the assault.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44917421

The Benalla dude has (had) a very murky status near Macron; went out to have some fun bashing heads with the cops, and got caught. :mrgreen: