ONE moment he was basking in glory after France’s victory at the World Cup. The next, Emmanuel Macron was up against a scandal that threatens to do serious damage to his year-old presidency. On July 20th, two days after revelations in Le Monde, a newspaper, the Elysée Palace fired Mr Macron’s most trusted bodyguard. Alexandre Benalla had been caught on video assaulting protesters on May 1st, behaviour later described by the presidency as “shocking”. Yet, at the time, he was merely suspended. Was this poor judgment? Or was there a cover-up?

Mr Benalla (pictured, manhandling a young woman) had worked on Mr Macron’s security team when he was a presidential candidate. Despite other allegations of violent behaviour, the young bodyguard earned Mr Macron’s trust, accompanying him regularly to public campaign events, and was subsequently recruited to the presidential team.

On Labour Day, May 1st, however, Mr Benalla secured permission to observe police operations. Protests in Paris that day degenerated into violence; 283 people were arrested. Video clearly shows Mr Benalla, dressed in a police protective helmet, beating one protester and dragging away another, after projectiles had been thrown at the police. Although wearing a police armband, Mr Benalla was not a policeman, and had no authority to intervene. Two days later, Patrick Strzoda, the director of Mr Macron’s office, suspended him.

It was only after Le Monde identified Mr Benalla on the video that the affair became public. Angry MPs, including from Mr Macron’s own party, demanded explanations. Amid consternation, parliament suspended examination of a bill to reform the constitution. Claiming to be responding to “new facts”, notably surveillance video of the incident that Mr Benalla had apparently obtained without authorisation from the police, the Elysée decided to fire the former bodyguard after all. The strange affair became stranger still. Rumours circulated about his various perks, including an official flat, police car and fat pay cheque, as well as his permit to carry a weapon—originally denied to him by the Interior Ministry, but secured by the Elysée. Preliminary charges have been brought against him.

Mr Strzoda defended his initial sanction this week. Taking responsibility for the decision, which he considered to be an internal personnel matter and an appropriate response to Mr Benalla’s “shocking” behaviour, he said that Mr Macron, who was in Australia, did not object when informed. Mr Benalla’s pay was not as extravagant as reported, he insisted, and his flat and police car were justified by the demands of the job. Yet questions remain unanswered. Why did nobody notify the public prosecutor, given that France’s criminal code obliges civil servants to do so if they are aware of a breach of the law?

On July 24th Mr Macron broke his silence and tried to defuse the affair. Laying into the press for failing to seek the full truth, a distinctly Trumpian allegation given that without Le Monde the affair would have remained hidden, the president said that, if anybody was ultimately responsible, it was him. He had been “disappointed” and “betrayed”, he declared, by Mr Benalla. It is unlikely that his words will calm matters. The Benalla affair has pulled off the remarkable achievement of uniting the far-right’s Marine Le Pen and the far-left’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who likened it, tendentiously, to Watergate. Mr Macron’s poll ratings, meanwhile, continue to sink; one this week had him on just 32%. His hot summer is not over yet.