In recent weeks, more and more elected officials have been receiving explicit threats. Like Pascal Blois, LREM deputy from Oise who, every day, discovers new anonymous messages in his mailbox: frightening letters with, even, death threats accompanied by bullets. His garage was also set on fire. He filed a complaint and was placed under protection; his home and his permanence are watched night and day by the gendarmerie.
The vaccine pass in sight
Like him, over the past three months, 540 deputies have suffered threats, insults or attacks. Attacks on elected officials have increased by 50%, some having been attacked or even beaten. They now fear for their lives. The vaccine pass has particularly crystallized criticism, increasingly virulent. A distrust expressed with unprecedented violence less than three months before the presidential election, shortly followed by the legislative elections.
A report by Elise Menand, Virginie Vilar, Perrine Bonnet and Elouën Martin broadcast in “Special Envoy” on February 3, 2022.
With Isabelle Rauch, MP for Moselle (LREM).
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– The Observatory of attacks against elected officials of the Association of Mayors of France.
– The survey “Violence against local elected officials”, carried out by the Association of Mayors of Ile-de-France.
– The bill to toughen penalties in the event of violence against elected officials.
– About the gendarmerie that accompanies the elected officials, the operation #Presentfortheelected.
Non-exhaustive list.