Several elected members of the National Assembly have been the subject of death threats from anti-vaccine people, noted the president of the institution, Richard Ferrand.
The Paris prosecutor's office then announced on Tuesday the opening of an investigation for "death threats against persons invested with public office".
The Paris prosecutor's office announced that it had opened an investigation on Tuesday for "death threats against people in public office", received for a week by deputies supporting the government's vaccine measures and the implementation of the pass sanitary. The President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand announced Thursday that he had reported to the prosecution these attempts to intimidate parliamentarians, some of whom have themselves filed a complaint, said the prosecution. The investigations were entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP).
"The President of the National Assembly notes that several deputies have been the subject of death threats because of their support for the vaccine strategy presented" on July 12 by President Emmanuel Macron to fight against a resurgence of the epidemic of Covid-19, he said in a statement Thursday.
"It cannot be tolerated that a representative of the nation may be the object of intimidation attempts aimed at hampering the exercise" of his elected mandate, the statement continued, hoping that "the perpetrators of these anti-democratic acts answer to justice ".
"It's real bullets that you are going to take"
The press release did not give the names of members of Parliament threatened, nor their number, nor more details on these threats and their origin.
However, several LREM deputies, in particular Patricia Mirallès (Hérault), Alexandre Freschi (Lot-et-Garonne) and Jean-Marc Zulesi (Bouches-du-Rhône) have published on social networks certain messages received.
"Tell the other deputies to vote well because from now on it is real bullets that you will take (I am armed), be careful where you go. You will never inject us with the vaccine", underlines the message quoted by Patricia Mirallès , which judges this threat, which does not "intimidate" it, "very worrying".
Reinforced protection measures for elected officials
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote to prefects and law enforcement officials on Friday evening to ask them to strengthen protective measures towards elected officials in the context of anti-vaccine mobilizations. The minister demanded to "strengthen the surveillance around the offices of parliamentarians as well as their homes if necessary" or to contact parliamentarians and elected officials to "remind them of the steps to follow in the event of an incident".
That day, about fifteen anti-vaccine demonstrators had invaded the office of the President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand (LREM) in Châteaulin (Finistère) on Friday, before being put to flight by a gendarmerie patrol. In Isère and in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, vaccination centers were vandalized and set on fire over the weekend. Saturday, nearly 114,000 people, including 18,000 in Paris, demonstrated across France against recent government measures, criticizing the extension of the health pass, the obligation to vaccinate caregivers or the "health dictatorship".