Victor Pourcher, edited by Gauthier Delomez
, modified at
2:53 p.m., January 11, 2022
The observation of the main stakeholders is clear: the threats are increasing in number and intensity. Among them, the LREM deputy Jacques Maire was himself touched. The police now patrol regularly around his home. In question, for him: the tensions linked to the health crisis. “I don’t know the people who threatened to kill me, but I saw people who blew their heads when, two years before, I would never have bet they could get to this type of thing. extremities “, he testifies at the microphone of Europe 1.
Since the start of 2022, 60 deputies have received death threats by email, not to mention the letters or even the damage. Facts that occur in the context of the vaccine pass vote, which mobilizes thousands of demonstrators across France.
Apprehensions for families
Luc Geismar, Modem deputy for Loire-Atlantique, was the victim of a more sordid threat. On Christmas Eve, the gendarmerie receives a call and indicates the body of a teenager at his address. Agents then disembark at his home in his absence, expecting to find his son’s corpse there.
“I was still shocked!”, Admits the deputy on Europe 1. “Obviously all the discussions on New Year’s Eve revolved around these threats,” he explains. And beyond politics, there are still the fears of family and daily life: “This week, I emptied my mailbox and found a parcel. I asked myself questions that I do not know. did not ask before. Do I have to open it? Where does it come from? To find out if I could consider this package as a safe package. “
Another illustration, Sabine Van Heghe, PS senator from Pas-de-Calais. With her group, she was rather in favor of the vaccination obligation. A few weeks later, she received a letter at home: her face, a skull and the words “We will not forget”. If she obviously condemns these threats, she finds “the most plausible reason” in “the arrogance” and “provocations” of certain presidential and ministerial words.
“The apprehensions remain. We were not elected to be insulted like that! Now at home, we feel threatened, in our own personal life and it is completely unbearable”, she breathes at the microphone from Europe 1.
Resist the pressure when voting
These deputies assure him: these pressures have and will have no effect on their choice in the hemicycle. Sacha Houlié, LREM deputy for Vienna, also a victim, says: “You do not tell yourself that you risk getting broken in your face, having your permanence burnt or having your home degraded before pressing the button . This is why it is totally useless and stupid. You vote for this text because you believe in it or not “.
The risk for these MPs is that threats will turn into physical attacks. Between January and November, 162 parliamentarians were victims of attacks, almost 50% more than the previous year. Faced with the increase in attacks, the President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand brings together this Tuesday evening the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, and the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupont-Moretti, to discuss the legal response to be made. Prime Minister Jean Castex for his part judged “inadmissible” Monday evening to attack “courageous elected officials of the Republic”.
Violence against elected officials: 300 complaints filed, according to Gérald Darmanin
More than 300 complaints for “threat of death” filed by national elected officials or “who appear in the media” have been filed, said Tuesday the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, without specifying the period over which this figure was recorded . “In this particular context of antivax, there are a lot of complaints filed for threats”, declared the minister on RTL.