• In 2020, attacks, threats and insults against elected officials have tripled.

    More than 500 mayors or deputies and 60 parliamentarians were physically attacked in 2020, according to the AMF.

  • To help them manage incivility, the gendarmerie has developed, with the help of the GIGN, training provided since February throughout France.

  • “20 Minutes” was able to attend one of them in Magny-les-Hameaux (Yvelines.)

Crisis situations are known to them. Trained by the GIGN, the two negotiators of the gendarmerie are daily confronted with madmen, hostage takers or suicidal people. But this Wednesday, in a room loaned by the municipality of Magny-les-Hameaux (Yvelines), it is in front of a dozen elected officials that the adjutant Sébastien A. and the Marshal of the head quarters Cyril B. intervene . On the program: training in “peaceful management of incivility”. Launched last February, this device was set up by the gendarmerie, which observed "a fairly significant increase in altercations or incivility towards elected officials", explains Sébastien A .. In Ile-de-France, a first training was provided a month and a half ago.

There are plenty of examples.

Isabelle Margot-Jacq, deputy mayor of Bullion, has certainly never known conflicts which have "come to blows".

But "somewhat hot discussions" happen regularly.

In Thoiry, the assistant Anne Frelaut-N'Diaye recognizes that the "names of birds" can come together when it is necessary to intervene on the occasion of a "neighborhood problem" or to signal to a motorist that it is wrong. parked.

Situations that can be "a little complicated" to manage for local elected officials, she admits.

“We are not pros!

"

"If you don't feel safe, you don't intervene"

So for two hours, the gendarmes will give them some techniques to “defuse a conflict” and “manage all crises peacefully, without violence”, underlines Warrant Officer Sébastien A .. The first thing to do, when an elected official is requested, it is to analyze the situation to know if it should intervene. "If you do not feel safe, you do not intervene and you do the 17th", insists the negotiator of the gendarmerie. When a "small demonstration" is organized in front of a town hall, it is important to "spot and identify the leader, the troublemaker" and to "isolate him" to "bring him down" and establish "a dialogue" , continues the Marshal of logis-head Cyril B .. 

Then, he says, “synchronize” with that person. “We look each other in the eyes, we don't try to gain the upper hand over her, to get higher than her. You really have to get down to your level. The objective is to "arouse empathy and create a bond of trust with her". Above all, continues the gendarme, "listening is what is most important to defuse a conflict". The trainers then list the mistakes to avoid. "Do not promise anything," warns the head marshal. Suggesting things to you, you may find a solution. "We must also avoid at all costs" humiliating the person "," rectifying the errors "," giving personal advice "," being threatening "or" making judgments ", adds Warrant Officer Sébastien AT..  

"When I am angry, I am in a weak position"

Mayor of Lévis-Saint-Nom, Anne Grignon would like to know how to better manage stress.

“When I'm angry, I'm weak,” she explains.

“Once, I was walking in the forest.

A motocross passed, then a second.

For the third, I didn't move, I stayed in front of him.

I was pissed off, the man in front of me even more.

He asked me to move… and, in the end, he spat on me.

"Sébastien A. recalls" that from the moment there is a difficulty, you have to go back and do the 17th ".

"Is it worth getting spit on?"

The answer is no… " 

The training ends with a practical case.

In turn, elected officials put themselves in the shoes of a mayor confronted with an angry citizen and try to apply the advice given by the gendarmes.

Balance sheet?

"There are many things that we know or that are common sense, but it does not eat bread to recall them", notes Anne Frelaut-N'Diaye, who found the training "rather not bad".

After the summer, the gendarmerie intends to set up new training courses for elected officials.

This time they will concern cybersecurity issues.

Society

Training to help elected officials cope with attacks by their constituents

Politics

How have the powers of mayors been recently strengthened?

  • Aggression

  • GIGN

  • Society

  • Gendarmerie

  • Mayor