Bodyguard row: Macron aims to contain damage

Bloomberg

A week after the scandal of the French president’s bodyguard broke, Emmanuel Macron is finally trying to steady the ship.
With surveys showing voters were demanding an explanation from their head of state after Le Monde newspaper released videos of his private bodyguard beating demonstrators at a May Day protest, Macron addressed a private meeting of his lawmakers and sought to draw fire from his embattled aides.
“If you’re looking for the person responsible for this, then it’s me and only me,” the president told deputies from his Republic on the March movement in Paris in a clip broadcast on French television. “My team at the Elysee Palace did what it had to do.”
The 40-year-old president is trying to put his plans to remake the French economy back on track — a constitutional reform of the legislature has already been delayed until September by the outrage at his handling of the bodyguard scandal. His team has come under fire for apparently trying to cover up the assault by 26-year-old Alexandre Benalla and protect him from its consequences, as well as inconsistent accounts of their actions.
Three-quarters of French people said their leader has been damaged by the episode, according to an Elabe poll.