Deputies, mayors, local elected officials, whatever their political label, many of them are victims of verbal or physical attacks in Île-de-France. Latest, Patrice Anato who decided “not to let this umpteenth attack pass”.
Patrice Anato, the LREM deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis filed a complaint after receiving a letter of racist insults and death threats on Tuesday. This time, the elected Ile-de-France no longer wishes to be silent and has posted this letter on social networks.
“Since the beginning of the mandate, many of us have already been stigmatized or tagged on certain social networks. I always said to myself that it was better not to advertise this type of message, to the people who are behind and who do not represent the majority of French people. This time the words used in this letter are extremely violent. I thought that in the current political context, it had to be denounced because there is a form of trivialization of all these hateful remarks“, says Patrice Anato, determined not to give up in the face of this surge of hatred.
Deputies, mayors, local elected officials, whatever their political label; many of them in Île-de-France have already received threats or been attacked.
In 2020, Laurent Simon, the mayor of Chalifert, a small town of 1,218 inhabitants in Seine-et-Marne, was beaten up by one of his constituents. Assessment: split brow bone, fractured rib, 10 days of ITT. “Decapitate Janodet”here is what was written last summer on billboards in the city of Orly, targeting Mayor Christine Janodet (DVG). The mayor of Trappes, in the Yvelines, Ali Rabeh, (Generation-s) has been placed under close protection. In Colombes in the Hauts-de-Seine, Patrick Chaimovitch, EELV mayor of Colombe has received death threats. Ditto for Mohamed Gnabaly, the mayor (SE) of Île-Saint-Denis who found Nazi inscriptions on the gate of his home.
The mayor of Poissy, Karl Olive, (SE) has been the victim of 3 attacks in 3 years. the last one happened at the beginning of December. A man was waiting for him in front of the town hall and said he wanted to cut his throat.
According to a survey by Amif, the Association of mayors of Île-de-France, published in April 2021, 70% of mayors in the Ile-de-France region questioned have suffered physical or verbal aggression and 25% of mayors surveyed have already been physically attacked.
This study reveals that local elected officials feel a “a strong feeling of insecurity, a lack of care and consideration for attacks, discouragement among elected officials and a lack of information on existing protection systems”.
To touch an elected official is to touch the Republic, to touch the Republic is to damage France
Karl Olive, mayor of Poissy
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For Karl Olive, the health crisis and that of the Yellow Vests have aggravated the phenomena of violence against elected officials. “I would say that the changeover was made at the time of the Yellow Vests. I refer to the tag of the Arc de Triomphe by the Yellow Vests“, he analyzes.
It also points to the risk of discouragement of elected officials, in particular mayors, and calls for an elected status “worthy of the name who can unfailingly protect the mayors“.
Today, there is an uninhibited voice, a hatred of elected officials or institutions
Patrice Anato, Member of Parliament for Seine-Saint-Denis
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According to Patrice Anato, “today, there is an uninhibited voice, a hatred of elected officials or institutions that is really growing and that is worrying. There is a lack of trust between citizens and institutions. A loss of trust”.
He pursues : “the successive crises that we are going through help to hysterize fears and fears. Some comments should not be made by politicians because it encourages others to spread hateful messages. We recently saw the President of the Republic being attacked. If we can slap the president, we can cut the throats of elected officials.”
If the mayor of Poissy leans to better protect the status of elected official and calls for respect for authority, Patrice Anato does not share the same vision. “Some of my colleagues and I thought that it was necessary to strengthen the protection of elected officials and at the same time, why protect elected officials more than citizens? I think that we must strengthen the protection of all elected and non-elected citizens against discriminatory insults on social networks and physical attacks by punishing more severely“, he asserts.
“This insulting letter (…) threatens living together and this problem must be tackled head on by all elected officials, regardless of their political sensitivity.“, he concludes.
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