More than a year after the events, the attacker of the mayor of Millas in the Pyrénées-Orientales was sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday October 5, 2023. The elected official had been attacked during a municipal celebration . Harassment, defamation, physical attacks, the number of complaints is increasing.
The attack occurred in June 2022, during a party in his village of Millas. The mayor, Jacques Garsau, had been taken to task by one of his constituents. The councilor had been doused with beer and insulted, he had suffered homophobic insults.
His alleged attacker appeared this Thursday, October 5 before the Perpignan court. An audience followed by Sandra Canal and Philippe Georget, journalists at France 3 Pays Catalan who interviewed the mayor of Millas who had filed a complaint.
I live and fight for my village, I was not elected to be attacked.
Jacques Garsau, mayor of Millas
“Even if we are within shouting distance, I can have a discussion with a citizen who does not agree with the way I manage the citycontinues the councilor. But I wasn’t elected to be attacked.”
The attacker was sentenced to six months in prison. “The decision rendered suits us perfectly”confided the lawyer of the attacker who had nevertheless requested the release because, according to her, “iThere is a distinction to be made between the right of one side and human error.”
Tuesday, the prefect brought together mayors, gendarmes and the public prosecutor in Perpignan to discuss the violence against elected officials. “Since the start of the year, there have been three attacks on elected officials, “with minor but intolerable physical consequences which have been the subject of systematic prosecution”, explained the prosecutor. There were two in 2022.
“You never get used to being hit”confides Christophe Manas, the mayor without label of Corneilla del Vercol who participated in the meeting. “Tnot all mayors are on an equal footing. There are mayors of large cities who are always surrounded by municipal police. And then there are the mayors of very small towns who are in the middle of the population.”
A law to protect elected officials was promulgated on January 24, 2023. It allows assemblies of elected officials and various associations of elected officials to form a civil party to fully support, in criminal proceedings, a person invested with a public elective mandate who is the victim of assault.
“The mayor must be secure, protect in his actionasserted the public prosecutor. He cannot be hindered in his work because he is subjected to threats or even violence. We are here to ensure the protection of elected officials.”
The prosecutor wanted to remind the city councilors present that the penal policy “is proactive in the department, with the principle of automatic referral of perpetrators of serious attacks to elected officials.”
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