"In Saint-Brice-Courcelles, we are shocked by the disappearance of the mayor." Alain Lalouette, first deputy of this commune in the Marne, who became acting mayor after the death of the council member on Friday, still can't get over it. Alain Lescouet had been re-elected in the first round of the municipal elections, on March 15. He died of the coronavirus. Alain Lalouette, too, has symptoms. And while two other municipalities have also lost their mayor of Covid-19, everyone believes that it was this first ballot that was the source of the contamination.
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Contaminated during elections
"I have been in confinement since March 16, the day after the elections," explains Alain Lalouette, adding that several people were infected within the municipal council. "We suppose we contracted it this weekend because seven or eight elected officials present today are sick."
If the elected representative assures that all the precautions had been taken to avoid as much as possible the risks of contamination, the major problem lay in the absence of supply of masks. Although he deplores this situation, Alain Lalouette refuses for the time being to look for those responsible.
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"We weren't four months away"
"Personally I think this is not the time," said the acting mayor, who was against the continuation of the first round of municipal elections. "We had the time, we were not four months away, but there are people, in the upper political arenas, who decided otherwise", he deplores, however refusing to fuel any controversy . "Today, I think it is especially necessary that we roll up our sleeves," he tempers. "And that we are trying to rehabilitate France."
The death of Alain Lescouet on Friday comes after the disappearance of two other mayors of French municipalities. The mayor of the village of Beurey-Bauguay (Côte-d'Or), and that of Saint-Nabor (Bas-Rhin), both died from the Covid-19 after having attended the voting operations of the first round of the municipal elections.
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