It’s chilly in Paris on Wednesday, September 28. The weather announces 5°C below seasonal averages. Emmanuel Macron must join the defense and national security council in the afternoon then Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate, for an interview. But at the end of the morning, the President of the Republic visits the Alma Palace, a building which adjoins the Jacques-Chirac museum, on the banks of the Seine, and houses several departments of the presidency. At the same time, two kilometers away, a 26-year-old man was intercepted in the hall of the Hôtel d’Evreux, the residence of the President of the Republic, in the heart of the Elysée. Gendarmes of the Republican Guard and bailiffs are amazed: without violence, without subterfuge, or stratagem, the intruder has crossed all the controls of the most secure palace in the Republic.
“The President of the Republic was notified immediately after the intrusion”, advance today the entourage of the Head of State. Several concordant sources, within the Palace, nevertheless assure the Monde that Emmanuel Macron was kept in the dark about the incident for more than two months, until the revelation of the intrusion by the chained duck, Wednesday, November 30. It was only the day after the publication, Thursday 1is December, that an initial detailed report is sent to it, at its request. Since then, the Elysee not only seeks to unmask the mole of journalists but also worries: how to explain such a blunder, potentially so heavy with consequences?
On the day of the events, the young man who entered the Elysée Palace had neither false identity papers nor disguise. Just a CV, which he intended to hand over to the President of the Republic after consulting Emmanuel Macron’s online agenda and quietly taking the train from the Lyon region, where he resides. On the outskirts of the Elysée Palace, despite dozens of caparisoned police officers armed with assault rifles, despite surveillance cameras, no one paid attention to him when, after touring the neighborhood for part of the morning, then wiped two refusals at the barriers that protect access to the “Château”, he simply followed in the footsteps of workers in charge of renovating the “large kitchens” of the Hôtel d’Evreux, crossed a protected passage, crossed the avenue Marigny which runs along one side of the Elysée, past the guard post without difficulty, crossed the main courtyard, climbed the steps of the perron and pushed open the glass doors of the vestibule of the Hôtel d’Evreux.
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