She says she doesn’t want to live in fear, but threats are scary. Like other parliamentarians and elected LREM MP for the 6th constituency of Var, Valérie Gomez-Bassac recently received death threats. A letter and email sent to his office, writings in which he was listed “everything that could be done to me physically if I continued to follow the government’s policy of participating in votes such as the one for the vaccine pass, there was also reference to the Bataclan and what has been done and the fact that some elected officials could suffer the same thing”.
It’s heavy. I felt tired of receiving this type of threat because it’s so easy, it’s so cowardly and I think of my colleagues who have had it worse than me – Valérie Gomez-Bassac
This is not the first time that she has received threats, her permanence has already been tagged and her Parisian pied-à-terre robbed. Violence that Valérie Gomez-Bassac denounces and does not want to accept: “It’s starting to weigh. When you’re elected, you’re not looking for that as opposition. Whether there’s opposition at the ballot box, in the votes, whether there’s disagreement, that’s part of democracy, but this violence doesn’t is not acceptable”.
This type of behavior must be condemned, it takes nothing away from my commitment. I regret the silence of the opposition because it’s time to show a form of solidarity
Near 1,200 elected officials were victims of attacks between January and November 2021, an increase of 47%. And in the past three months alone, the National Assembly has recorded more than 800 reports of threats, targeting 430 deputies. For Valérie Gomez-Bassac it is worrying and she evokes “a distrust of institutions” she also believes that the health crisis encourages this violence. But she assures that it does not “don’t be discouraged”.
If we turn our backs every time there is an act of violence, it will not advance the system
In the region, the deputies La République en Marche, Jean-Marc Zulési, Mohamed Laqhila and Anne-Laurence Petel have also already received threats.