Paris (AFP)
The Minister in charge of Local Authorities, Sebastien Lecornu, announced Thursday the state support for the psychological support of mayors victims of aggression.
"The situation in which are the 600,000 local elected representatives of this country and especially the 35,000 mayors of France worries me a lot," said the minister on Europe 1, acknowledging that "sometimes dropped the elected in the past more or less recent ".
In 2018, there were "361 acts" of aggression by mayors, of which "60% are insults or threats, verbal or on social networks," lamented Mr. Lecornu.
"In 40% of the cases, we are on physical aggression", with "often mayors who are in the field and who come into contact with a situation," he continued.
To "allow the mayors to go less in contact", the minister wants to "touch the wallet of a number of offenders" thanks to "administrative fines, tools generally assigned to the prefect" he will "bring down to mayors ".
Stressing that the criminal response is "almost systematic" for the perpetrators of the attacks, the minister announced measures after the fact.
"Today a mayor who has been the victim of aggression will have to pay for legal assistance on his own money: we will take charge of it. (...) And for the first time, the French state will also take charge psychological counseling, "he explained.
A response "firm, exemplary and uncompromising" incivilities: in a message read at the funeral of the mayor of Signes (Var), Jean-Mathieu Michel, Emmanuel Macron had already sent a signal to local elected officials, indignant at the death of the one of them in the performance of his duties.
© 2019 AFP