The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.

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Sarah Alcalay / SIPA

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti announced on Wednesday that insults against mayors would now be considered outrage, after an interministerial meeting in Matignon on violence against elected officials.

The Keeper of the Seals, who announced a circular "in the coming days, or even in the coming hours" to respond to attacks against elected officials.

Contrary to the insult "which is often the qualification retained" in these cases, that of contempt allows the implementation of TIG (work of general interest), recalled the minister.

"It's simple, it's pragmatic, it's efficient and it's going in the right direction", he assured, after a meeting in which the various associations of elected officials participated, in the presence of the Prime Minister Jean Castex, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Jacqueline Gourault.

The circular will contain "a number of measures that allow us to tell mayors how much we are at their side," said Eric Dupond-Moretti, without giving more details on its content.

233 mayors attacked since January

“This implies that justice gives a proportionate response, of course, systematic and immediate, of course,” he added.

The associations of elected officials criticize the courts for their slowness in dealing with cases of assault.

"Every attack committed against a mayor is an attack against the Republic", insisted the minister, after a summer marked by various attacks against mayors.

According to figures from the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), 233 mayors were assaulted from January to July.

For the whole of 2019, they had been 383 to suffer blows or insults, against 361 in 2018. Its president, François Baroin, present at Matignon, refused to comment on the circular before being aware of it.

"We are looking forward to it."

"This meeting was essential, necessary in the light of the evolution of a violence which is indisputable in our society", he nevertheless affirmed after the meeting.

Several attacks hit the headlines this summer, notably that of Francis D'Hulst, elected from the locality of Portbail in the Manche area hit by campers, or that of Philippe Becheau, mayor of Saint-Philippe-d'Aiguille, in Gironde, after complaining of noise at night.

Last week, the mayor of Chalifert (Seine-et-Marne) was attacked with punches by one of his constituents for a neighborhood dispute.

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  • Eric Dupond-Moretti

  • Insult

  • Mayor