Mayor files complaint after cables in his car were cut

The cables controlling the anti-lock system of his personal car were cut intentionally, according to an expert report.

“We have reached a milestone in the violence against elected officials.” The mayor of Marcq-en-Barœul (North), Bernard Gérard (LR), filed a complaint against X after discovering that the cables controlling the anti-lock system of his car’s wheels had been cut. “I filed a complaint for damage, it will be up to the prosecution to qualify the facts,” declared Saturday January 20 to AFP the mayor of this town of 40,000 inhabitants in the Lille metropolitan area, confirming information from The voice of the North and France 3 Hauts-de-France.

According to the councilor, the complaint was filed on January 9, four days after his wife noticed that a red light was displayed on the dashboard of their car. A mechanic then an expert from the insurance company noted that “the ABS cables had been cut with pliers”, he explained, calling any witness to come forward as part of the investigation. “I am incredulous at a story like this,” he testified to a colleague from France 3. “How can people be so cowardly as to act this way?”

Mayors “on the front line”

Since the events, Bernard Gérard declared having received a note from Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior and former mayor of Tourcoing, another town in the Lille metropolis. He also received numerous public supports on France, Xavier Bertrand.

“Being mayor is relentless,” continued Bernard Gérard, also president of the Association of Mayors of the North. As such, he assured that other mayors had informed him of violence against them. “We are on the front line”, he lamented.

On the occasion of the congress of mayors of France last November, a survey by the Sciences Po Political Research Center reported that seven out of ten mayors declared having been the subject of incivility and violence. The year 2023 was also marked by several high-profile cases, such as the arson, in March, of the home of the mayor of Saint-Brevin (Loire-Atlantique), Yannick Morez, and the car-ramming attack targeting the of the councilor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne), during the riots at the beginning of July.