PARIS, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Alexandre Benalla, one of French President Emmanuel Macron's former security aid on Wednesday denounced fierce media offensive, adding he had been "instrumentalized for political ends."
Benalla was under investigation on charges of violence in meetings and interference in police officer's work after a video showed wearing a police badge and beating a protester in Paris on May 1.
Forced to lose his job, Macron's ex-deputy chief of staff had said he attended the demonstration as an observer and to help police to preserve calm and maintain protesters under control.
"I felt at one time a relentless media offensive, a political relentlessness and I had the impression that a certain number of people were able to use the institutions of our country for political and media purposes," he said.
Appearing before lawmakers in Senate hearing, the 27-year-old man had claimed he had never been Macron's bodygurad. "I have never been his seat or his shoulder," he said.
He explained that his missions at the Elysee Palace consisted in organizing the president's national travels and his private trips, organizing events at the Elysee and coordinating between security services.
"The coordination of the security services was not to be the head of the security services but to conduct a number of meetings. It was not an operational function but an administrative one," Benalla said.
Sparked in July after a local newspaper revealed the footage to public, the so-called "Benalla affair " brought the fierce criticism the 40-year-old head of state had faced since he took power in May 2017.
Although the government tried to handle the scandal, Macron's disgraced security officer fuelled anger over of the president's jupiterian ruling style and, driving Macron's approval rating to a record low, making hard for him to seduce voters and silent critics.
A recent ifop poll showed the president's popularity dip by 10 percentage points to 31 percent in August, his worst score since taking power 16 months ago.
According to ifop deputy general director Frederic Dabi, the "Benalla affair," was "a slow poison" that undermined the head of state's leadership style.
