The left-wing parties called for a large rally on Wednesday in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins to support the resigning mayor of this town in Loire-Atlantique, who has become the symbol of local elected officials who are victims of violence, and at the same time denounce "the threat of the extreme right". The boss of the PS Olivier Faure, his communist counterpart Fabien Roussel and the national secretary of EELV, Marine Tondelier, are particularly expected for this "march" planned from 5 p.m. on a square in this seaside resort of 14,000 inhabitants.
Yannick Morez, the resigning mayor (DVD), announced in a statement on his Facebook page that he will speak at 6 p.m. in front of City Hall, but that neither he nor his municipal team will take part in this march. While thanking the elected officials who support him, Yannick 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 topic," he wrote.
Since his shock hearing by the Senate Law Commission and an interview at Matignon with Élisabeth Borne on May 17, the elected official has no longer spoken publicly. Before the senators, Yannick 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 of reception of asylum seekers (Cada) which already existed in Saint-Brevin since 2016.
He has repeatedly expressed his feeling of having been "abandoned" by state services as the demonstrations organized by a small group of residents multiplied, which were then joined by far-right groups from other regions, in particular from the movement of Reconquest!, the party of Éric 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.
For lack of support from the public authorities, Yannick Morez announced his irrevocable decision to resign and leave the city with his family. This resignation was "taken under the threat of the extreme right" and "constitutes a real failure for the Republic and for the State which has proved incapable of ensuring the security of the elected official and of being at his sides", denounce the left organizations in their call for the rally in Saint-Brevin.
Condemning "the lack of commitment of the State to support the elected representatives 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.
