Macron's special advisor resigns for "personal reason": gov't spokesperson

Source: Xinhua| 2019-02-12 23:03:06|Editor: yan
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PARIS, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron's special advisor Ismael Emelien resigned for "personal reasons", said the government's spokesman Benjamin Griveaux on Tuesday, rejecting alleged links with the affair of Macron's former security advisor.

"(Ismael Emelien) has made his choices. It is a very personal choice. His departure is linked to the writing a book he co-wrote with David Amiel on progressivism," Griveaux told France 2 television.

Emelien has surfaced in the investigation into the so-called Benalla affair that involved the president's former top security aide Alexandre Benalla who had been charged of violence in meetings and interference in police officer's work after a video showed him wearing a police badge and beating a protester in Paris on May 1, 2018.

According to Le Figaro newspaper, Benalla told the investigators that he had transmitted videos he obtained illegally from police to Emelien to cover-up the incident.

Rejecting any link with the affair, Emelien, the 31-year-old advisor, told Le Point magazine on Monday that he was stepping down to publish a book on "progressive politics" as Macron having barred his collaborators from publishing while in office.

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