REPORTING. In Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, a march to say “farewell to the mayor” and hope “finally to turn the page”

Yannick Morez advances on the forecourt of the Town Hall and his round eyes betray his surprise. “I did not expect to see so many people to support me, so a big thank you”, loose on the microphone the elected official who, discouraged by the threats surrounding the transfer project of the Reception Center for Asylum Seekers (Cada), preferred to resign from his chair as mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (Loire -Atlantic), May 10. This Wednesday, May 24, so it’s probably the last time he speaks wearing his blue-white-red scarf.

Behind him, part of the municipal team shoulders him. Before, the main leaders on the left are side by side: Olivier Faure, Fabien Roussel, François Ruffin, Marine Tondelier, Johanna Rolland, Jean-Luc Mélenchon… “We are all here to show that we are holding on and we want to demonstrate. We are on the left, the mayor is on the right, but democracy and the Republic, we have it in common”declares the leader of the Insoumis.

In the midst of these names “descended” from Paris, some of the 15,000 inhabitants of the seaside town have “also things to say”. “God knows I don’t carry it in my heart”, begins by saying Antoine, a young pensioner crossed along the avenue Jules-Verne, in boots and fatigues. “I have never voted for him. I am rather on the left. But a mayor who resigns for these reasons is absolutely abnormal. I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk to him before he leaves town, so I’m telling him my support with this rally. It was before he was attacked that he had to be supported. I screwed up first.”

Véronique, a shopkeeper from the city center, recognized in the procession “a well-known anti-Cada in the town”. It’s not just the Republican march that looks like a farewell, it’s each of the mayor’s appearances. “Now everywhere he goes, people say goodbye to him,” remarks a close friend of the chosen one. At the medical office where Yannick Morez has been practicing since the 1990s, Madeleine Colin was even surprised to take him in her arms this morning. “He stops consultations at the end of June, so it was the last time I saw him”, would almost apologize the octogenarian who came to accompany her husband, Gérard, “broken everywhere”. “He had been following us for thirty years, it’s not nothing anyway. I said thank you to him. Thank you doctor and thank you Mr. Mayor.” When leaving by car, Madeleine Colin did not turn her head towards the mayor’s house, located next door. “Too hard, too hard, too hard”, she repeats, hiding her eyes. Dark tarps still cover the facade which was eaten by flames at the end of March.

The very morning of the arson, Nathalie Le Berre had sent this text message to Yannick Morez: “I am appalled by this violence. You have my support.” The elected opposition member, who was head of the Rassemblement list for Saint-Brevin (various right) during the last municipal elections, thinking aloud: “The fire was two months ago now. But I think it will still take time before the city completely moves on. In fact, as long as the reception center for asylum seekers will not have opened its doors, tensions will continue.”

From his counter, the bar owner The Buddies has a vimpregnable view of “everything that happened” on Victory Square since the end of last year. Saint Nicholas Church of the Estuary in front of which pwildfires have been organised? Just in front. The parades of the far-right group Action française and the royalists? There too. Usually tourists walk around in shorts. “During the big demonstration in February, my bar was open, it was happening there, even on my terrace. Law enforcement, extreme right and extreme left. The next time, I closed my establishment. But that’s enough now, we’re fed up, stop.”

Met at the end of their Wednesday morning French course, Mohammed and Bwaris, two Afghans who arrived on the Atlantic coast in 2021, seem surprised by all this turmoil. “We just want to live in peace”they mutter, before getting on their bikes in front of the current Reception center for asylum seekers located in the city center.

“My children told me to stop exposing myself”

Philippe Croze is “pretty agree”. “What people tell me is that we have to turn the page”, summarizes the president of the collective of attentive and united Brevinois. “But my fear is that the origin of the case is passed over in silence”continues the one who has accompanied migrants settled in the town for many years. “Are we talking during this time about these men, these women who are threatened by war, by famine, who just want to be helped? The answer is no.”

Still, he concedes, “there are heart-warming signs.” With the media coverage of the reception center project, the association observes new memberships. “Got another one this week, someone joining just to support ushe says, reassured. And instead of paying the amount of membership, these new ones wrote us checks for 20, 30 or 50 eupink. I am the first surprised by these donations, but it proves that we are not alone.”

Nevertheless: his children have always “fear” for him. Until recently, “they told me to stop exposing myself, they reminded me that my photo was circulating on the internet, that I regularly received threats by mail, he lists. Very good, but II will continue to express what I think, to say what is good. We will continue our actions. We have already party ideas from elsewhere.”

Stoned windows of the future reception center

Meanwhile, between the pines of the avenue des Pierres Couchées, very close to the sea, the worksite of the future reception center for asylum seekers is progressing. Its opening is still scheduled for December. But the supervision of the works has been reinforced. The gendarmes make more rounds and, new, security agents now take turns night and day: some time ago, several windows were stoned and at the entrance, on the right, a tag fuck has not yet been completely erased. No one was arrested. “There are curious people who stop, take a picture and leave”, observes a security guard. 400 meters away, a local resident opposed to the project from the start is still opposed, “for lots of reasons”, she explains with a wave of her hand, before closing the door.

The next municipal council of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins should take place on June 9. The atmosphere may be “damn strange”, slips a city councilor. According to our information, it is the first deputy, Dorothée Pacaud, who should take the reins of the city until the end of the mandate. “It’s going to be a change in continuity with the former mayor”, risks an elected opposition member. On far-right sites, Dorothée Pacaud is also directly targeted. The more than likely future mayor of Saint-Brevin is there, like Yannick Morez, described as “dangerous” And “pro-migrants”.