The government mobilizes after a new course in violence against elected officials

Published on : 01/10/2022 – 6:30 PM

With the assault at his home of the deputy for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Stéphane Claireaux (LREM), a new step was taken in the violence against elected officials, which has been on the rise for weeks, causing a conviction on Monday by a good part of the political class and a mobilization of the government.

Traveling to Nice, President Emmanuel Macron denounced an “unacceptable” and “intolerable” aggression, deploring “the intensification of violence” against elected officials.

Stéphane Claireaux announced Monday his intention to file a complaint, after being targeted the day before by projectiles in front of his home in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon launched by demonstrators against the health pass. An attack which according to him “resembled a stoning”.

“It has to stop”

“I’m going to file a complaint, it’s obvious. Some may think that we are not making the right decisions. We all receive death threats by email, at some point, it has to stop,” a declared the deputy to franceinfo.

Faced with the proliferation of attacks and threats, the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, will meet Tuesday evening the Ministers of the Interior and Justice, Gérald Darmanin and Éric Dupond-Moretti, to take stock of the number of cases identified and the legal response provided.

According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, 1,186 elected officials were targeted in the first eleven months of 2021, including 162 parliamentarians and 605 mayors or deputies victims of physical attacks, an increase of 47% compared to 2020 In 2021, 419 outrages were also recorded (+ 30%).

Richard Ferrand had announced the organization of such a meeting during the truce of the confectioners after the fire of the personal garage of the deputy LREM of the Oise Pascal Bois in Chambly which had already aroused a strong emotion, against a background of increased violence against MPs mainly because of their support for government health policy.

Gérald Darmanin had announced in the wake of strengthening the protection of homes and offices of deputies.

“Totalitarianism”

On Monday, the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Marc Fesneau, questioned on the aggression of Stéphane Claireaux, deplored the “quite frightening images”, and “an additional degree in violence”, even warning against the risk of ” totalitarianism”.

“A milestone has been crossed”, abounded the LREM president of the Laws Commission of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, who on RTL admitted to being afraid in the face of the resurgence of these facts: ” takes to our offices, there we start to attack our private homes. “

“There were in 2021 what I counted 322 threats against deputies, including two thirds against deputies of my group”, indicated the boss of the LREM group to the Assembly Christophe Castaner.

The majority received support both on their right and on their left.

“Violence and intimidation against our elected officials are a red line in our democracy. I call for exemplary sanctions against the perpetrators of such acts”, reacted the President LR of the Senate, Gérard Larcher.

“Delusional speeches”

For the boss of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, “some antivaxers take as an alibi the provocations of the President to justify their violence”, denouncing “deeply shocking acts, even more in front of the private home which is also that of a family”.

It is “absolutely unacceptable”, also condemned on Twitter the boss of EELV Julien Bayou.

But opinions differ when it comes to attributing responsibility for this violent drift.

The Minister of Relations with the Parliament “warned the public officials who are throwing popular revenge” on elected officials.

The deputy LR Éric Ciotti denounced on RMC “these excesses which take an extraordinarily disturbing and dangerous turn”, and “those who led them into these delusions, including for political reasons, who today are making their electoral honey on the health of the French “, citing in particular” the delusional speeches of Mr. [Florian] Philippot “.

But he also criticized the “provocations of the head of state” who, according to him, “for political reasons, seeks conflict, seeks tension, seeks to split”.

With AFP