In Saint-Brévin, a march organized by the left in support of the resigning mayor

The left-wing parties called for a large rally, Wednesday, May 24, in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins to support the resigning mayor of this commune of Loire-Atlantique, who has become the symbol of local elected officials who are victims of violence.

The first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, and the national secretary of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, Marine Tondelier, are notably expected for this ” market “ scheduled from 5 p.m. in a square in this seaside resort of 14,000 inhabitants.

Yannick Morez, the resigning mayor (DVD), announced in a press release on his Facebook page that he will speak at 6 p.m. in front of the town hall but that neither he nor his municipal team will take part in this march. While thanking the elected officials who support him, Mr. Morez “Nevertheless regrets the political recovery, in particular by the far left, of this march which was initially intended to be transpartisan”. “I also regret the discretion of the right on this theme”he wrote.

Since his shock hearing by the Senate Law Commission and an interview at Matignon with the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, on May 17, the elected official had no longer spoken publicly. Before the senators, Mr. Morez, a doctor by profession, had detailed at length each of the threats from the far right of which he had been the victim since the formalization, at the end of 2021, of the transfer near a school in his town of a center reception center for asylum seekers (Cada) which has already existed in Saint-Brevin since 2016.

“Abandoned” by the State

He repeatedly expressed his feeling of having been ” abandoned “ by the State services while the demonstrations organized by a small collective of inhabitants multiplied, to which were then joined small groups of the far right from other regions, in particular from the movement of Reconquest!, the party of Eric Zemmour.

Accompanied by an extremely virulent campaign on social networks, these attacks had culminated on March 22 in the early morning with the burning of two vehicles of the mayor in front of his home, the facade of which had also been affected by the flames while there slept with family.

Without government support, Yannick Morez announced his irrevocable decision to resign and leave town with his family. This resignation was “taken under threat from the far right” And “constitutes a real failure for the Republic and for the State which has proved incapable of ensuring the safety of the elected official and of being at his side”denounce the left-wing organizations in their call for a rally in Saint-Brevin.

condemning “the lack of commitment of the State to support the elected[e]s of the Republic »the signatories refuse “to see our democracy thus weakened and attacked by an increasingly trivialized extreme right”.

Acts of physical or verbal violence against elected officials increased by 32% in 2022, according to the Ministry of the Interior.