The “Saint-Brevin affair” continues to torment the elected representatives of small municipalities. The violence suffered by Yannick Morez, various right-wing mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique), is “terrorist in nature”denounced André Laignel, vice-president of the Association of mayors of France, during the meeting of the Association of small towns of France, the 1er and June 2 in Millau (Aveyron).
Plagued for months by attacks and intimidation of residents, supported by the far right, Mr. Morez, who carried the project to open a reception center for asylum seekers (CADA) in his town, ended up announcing his resignation on May 10, a few weeks after the arson of his home, provoking a wave of national indignation. The character “terrorist” of this violence, specified Mr. Laignel, comes from this “that they are intended to terrorize the mayors and lead them to refuse humanity and international law which gives refugees the right to asylum”.
The socialist mayor of Issoudun (Indre) denounced a “new phenomenon” : organized far-right groups that “challenging local democracy”. This was the case in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, even if the State recently confirmed that the CADA would open despite the resignation of the mayor. In Callac (Côte-d’Armor), on the other hand, the mobilization organized by Reconquête! got the better of the municipal refugee reception project. In Bélâbre (Indre) or Beyssenac (Corrèze), the same type of opposition is organized.
“Lightning rods of a destabilized society”
François Bayrou, MoDem councilor of Pau and High Commissioner for Planning, present in Millau, noted that “the mayors have become the lightning rods of a destabilized, unbalanced society, and it is on them that it falls”. Because “there is no longer the defense born of respect for the function”.
All the mayors brought together by the Association of Small Towns of France in Millau had in mind the violence suffered on the ground, the record resignations of elected municipal officials and the risk of a hemorrhage of candidates for the next deadlines. On this risk, one of the issues, warned Mr. Bayrou, is “Security” of the situation of mayors. “I was deeply shocked by the sentence that struck [Hubert] Falcon »he testified.
The former Macronist mayor of Toulon was sentenced on April 14 for “concealment of embezzlement of public funds” to a three-year suspended prison sentence, the obligation to repay 55,000 euros and an ineligibility sentence of five years. Mr. Falco had indeed continued to have lunch for free for years at the county council, when he had not been president for more than ten years. He had also benefited from Meals on Wheels and laundry charges. “Certainly he had eaten in the canteenprotested Mr. Bayrou, even often… Give him a fine, all right. But to be stripped of all his mandates by the minute, without the possibility of appealing, is a death sentence. » In fact, Hubert Falco has appealed against his conviction, but remains ineligible until then.
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