While he was traveling to Grenoble (Isère), accompanied by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, and the mayor of the city, Éric Piolle, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, was threatened by antivax, this Saturday 29 January.
Coming to attend a ministerial meeting on the actions carried out in favor of the city, the visit of the head of government was indeed made in a hostile atmosphere.
According to information from the political service of CNEWS, the facts took place when the head of government was leaving an exchange with young people.
Antivax had placed themselves in his path and then began to insult him with “rotten” or “murderer” or even throwing “Castex in prison”, “release”, but the Prime Minister continued on his way. His safety has never been threatened, specifies Matignon.
A redirected visit
However, it has been decided to make a slight change of program. Jean Castex thus had to go to a gymnasium to discuss inclusion through sport, in particular with Karl Olive, the mayor of Poissy (Yvelines) reputed to be very invested in the subject. However, antivax were also waiting for him there.
The head of government finally went to a vaccination center, where he then said he “regrets” these incidents. Matignon also told CNEWS that they considered them regrettable, because it prevented the Prime Minister from having discussions with residents who wanted to talk to him.
Annoyance of Eric Piolle
The day before the Prime Minister’s visit, the mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle, was annoyed by ministerial visits to the Grenoble metropolis in a tweet:
Our cities are not zoos! 70 days before the presidential election @JeanCASTEX + 4 ministers arrive in a fragile district of Grenoble…no work with local elected officials beforehand. Not long ago, they refused the inhabitants of this same neighborhood millions of investments! pic.twitter.com/m5oZUDgA97
— Eric Piolle (@EricPiolle) January 28, 2022
According to the city councilor, the ministers who come to the region do no work upstream with the elected officials, especially when it comes to visiting the inhabitants of sensitive neighborhoods.
The Grenoble mayor also declared that he did not understand Jean Castex’s visit to his city and to the municipalities of the metropolis.