PARIS : A former top security aide for French President Emmanuel Macron was brought before a judge Sunday after videos emerged of him striking a young man during a demonstration, a scandal which has derailed parliamentary proceedings as lawmakers press the government for explanations.

Alexandre Benalla, 26, was fired Friday after footage was released of him hitting the man at least twice as riot police looked on while breaking up a May Day protest in Paris.

Benalla, who was wearing a police helmet with visor as well as a police armband, is facing charges of violence by a public official, impersonating a police officer and complicity in unauthorised use of surveillance footage.

Three police officers, including two high-ranking officials, have been suspended on suspicion they illegally gave Benalla video surveillance footage last week so he could try to clear his name.

His associate Vincent Crase, an employee in Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party who also attended the protest, is also facing charges. The scandal has become the most damaging for Macron since his election last year on pledges to restore transparency and integrity to the nation's highest office in order to ensure a "republic of responsibility".

In response to the outcry sparked by the videos, Macron's office said Benalla was punished in May with a two-week suspension and transferred from security duties to an administrative role.

Yet he has continued to be seen in Macron's security details since then, while opposition parties accuse the president of covering up an assault that should have been reported to prosecutors.

"Why the devil did he insist on protecting a second-rank employee who should have been kicked out of the Elysee months ago?" rightwing daily Le Figaro wrote in an editorial Sunday.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb is to appear before parliament on Monday morning, with some MPs warning they will demand his resignation if he knew about the incident but did not say anything.

After publishing the first video of the incident last Wednesday, French daily Le Monde posted a second video showing Benalla violently wrestling a young woman to the ground during the scuffles on a square near the Rue Mouffetard, a picturesque Left Bank street.

Just days after the May 1 demonstrations, which were marred this year by anarchists who clashed with police, Macron had tweeted that "everything will be done so that those responsible will be identified and held accountable for their actions".

In a third video, published by the Mediapart investigative news site, police officers are seen kicking and punching the young man even after he has been immobilised on the sidewalk.

The government has been forced to suspend debate on a constitutional reform bill after a revolt by lawmakers, who have announced commission of inquiry in both the National Assembly and Senate.

"If Macron doesn't explain himself the Benalla affair will become the Macron affair," far-right leader Marine Le Pen posted on Twitter.

But LREM spokesman Gabriel Attal defended the president's silence, saying that if Macron spoke now, "we'd have indignant commentators everywhere saying his comments could influence the inquiry."

Adding to the controversy, Le Monde reported Friday that despite his suspension Benalla was allowed this month to move into a palatial mansion along the Seine reserved for Elysee workers.

He was also being provided with a car and driver, the paper said.

Investigators have searched Benalla's home in the Paris suburb of Issy-Les-Moulineaux, where a city hall official said Benalla was supposed to have gotten married on Saturday.

The man and woman seen in the video have been identified and plan to testify, a source close to the inquiry said.

The scandal could hardly have come at a worse time for Macron, whose approval ratings fell to a record low of 39 percent last week, defying analysts' expectations of a post-World Cup bump.

"Macron defenceless," the Journal du Dimanche said in a front-page headline on Sunday over a picture of the president and Benalla.