victims of threats and violence, elected officials “angry with bullshit” try to react

Pascal Bois, LREM deputy for Oise, is one of more than 1,300 elected officials targeted by intimidation and threats in 2021. In his case, it goes much further. His garage and car were set on fire in the middle of the night during the week of New Year’s Day. He would never have imagined being targeted at his home, in Chambly, a quiet town about forty kilometers from Paris: “We were woken up by the firefighters who came knocking on the door and there was a moment of astonishment. Particularly my wife who could not imagine such a thing, that we can come and attack the home of ‘a parliamentarian. “

“There is an element of anger, anger at bullshit. In a democratic country, there are other ways.”

Pascal Bois, LREM deputy for Oise

to franceinfo

Pascal Bois then takes us to the other side of his house, on the street side. On the surrounding wall, “there are two tags”. On one is inscribed “Vote no!”, on the other in red, “It’s going to be crazy”. “So the message is clear”, comments the deputy. For this elected member of the majority, it is the signature of the antivax.

Since the fire, he has already received two new death threats by email and the intentions leave no doubt: “I read them diagonally because it shouldn’t become too anxiety-provoking either, but hey, there you go, it’s’ you’re going to take balls. I make, distribute semi-automatics. have one of these weapons killed, it’s thanks to me. ‘It goes a long way, but we cannot let it go and we cannot be in the renunciation either. In the end, you have no choice, you can’t give up like that. “

In barely a month and a half, Pascal Bois filed four complaints. In particular, in November, he received a threat letter with a 22 Long Rifle bullet, as did other deputies and senators from the Oise. To secure his house, the elected official decided to install cameras. The Minister of the Interior, for his part, asked for more patrols in front of the offices and the homes of parliamentarians.

For its part, the gendarmerie has just launched a major operation to support rural elected officials after noting a 21% increase in attacks targeting them in small and medium-sized municipalities. A campaign called “Presents for elected officials” with the launch of an application dedicated to mayors, Gend’Elus. For Raphaël Nivoit, it is not “com”, but concrete. He is the mayor of the small town of Gambais, in Yvelines and having this application on his phone is an additional tool for him in the face of new threats: “We do not expect it, to be attacked by a citizen or by a person in the street that we can cross.”

“We don’t expect it, we don’t prepare for this.”

Raphaël Nivoit, Mayor of Gambais

to franceinfo

“The chosen one is the first on the front line and the objective is to ensure that the gendarmerie is really accessible at the tip of the finger, explains adjutant Arnaud Conchaudron, security referent for the Yvelines departmental gendarmerie group. He The mayor just has to type in the name of the municipality where he is located, and immediately he will have a direct link with the telephone number of the nearest gendarmerie brigade “, says Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Le Guyader, assistant officer. Mayors can also subscribe to “a specific system “ which allows the brigade to identify them by their telephone number: “We know then that an elected official seeks to join us urgently, and a prioritization is made in relation to this identification “.

Another tool available to elected representatives of rural municipalities: the system Ubiquity which allows them to file a complaint without having to travel. The gendarmes come to them. On the management of incivility, the regional negotiators of the GIGN also trained more than 13,000 elected last year, more than a thousand for the Raid.

Elected officials are encouraged to file a complaint as soon as they are threatened, but when it is not a matter of physical assault, the perpetrators of the threats are rarely prosecuted. This is what the mayor of Cannes David Lisnard, president of the Association of Mayors of France, deplores: “There is an ease to classify without follow-up when it comes to threats, invective or simply pushing. And we would like an effectiveness. And then I have proposed for several months now that the Association of Mayors of France can become a civil party when an elected municipal official is attacked or threatened. “

David Lisnard will be received on January 18 by Éric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of Justice. Richard Ferrand, the President of the National Assembly is also due to meet the Keeper of the Seals and the Minister of the Interior in the coming days. The Prime Minister, for his part, denounced “unacceptable violence”, Tuesday January 4. Three months before the presidential election, the subject is ultra-sensitive.