Europe 1 19:06 p.m., May 27, 2023

The mayor of the seaside resort said he had received death threats by anonymous mail. After the resignation of Yannick Morez, mayor of Saint-Brévin-les-Pins and victim of many pressures by a collective of the extreme right, the safety of elected officials, especially local, raises questions. At the microphone of Europe 1, Franck Louvrier, LR mayor of La Baule, shares his feelings on "a crisis of authority".

INTERVIEW

Are local elected officials in danger? While the case of Yannick Morez - mayor of Saint-Brévin, threatened, insulted and whose house was burned - was discussed up to the top of the state, another mayor of Loire-Atlantique, Franck Louvrier, said he was the target of death threats. In his mailbox, the elected official found this month a letter addressed personally to the town hall in which there were two photos of the decapitated head of Samuel Paty and a third photo of the Bataclan massacre with the question written in red "Maybe tomorrow in La Baule?".

If he confides to the microphone of Europe 1 this Saturday not to be particularly worried about the safety of the Baulois, Franck Louvrier regrets for all that a growing feeling of insecurity. "It is above all this also reflects that the tricolor scarf does not protect, any more than the blouse or the uniform. As we have seen lately, we were, as we commonly said, within reach of slaps. Now we are within reach of violent and sometimes even criminal acts," he said. "Violence sometimes is an argument instead of debate and argument against argument."

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Sanctions and zero tolerance

For the LR mayor of La Baule and former communicator of Nicolas Sarkozy, the causes of this violence against elected officials are multiple but it is necessary to apply sanctions, with in some cases aggravating circumstances, such as when the violence and threats target state officials, police officers, firefighters or medical personnel. "We must seize the subject so that we can sanction strongly, so that we can show that the State must be respected," he insists at the microphone of Europe 1.

An investigation is currently underway according to the elected via the judicial police of Nantes to determine the author or authors of the mail he was addressee.