Everyone is waiting for him. At 6 p.m., this Wednesday, May 24, Yannick Morez finally leaves the town hall of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique), a town of 14,000 inhabitants which he has led since 2017. Tricolor scarf around his chest, accompanied of his municipal team, the city councilor (various right) surveys the crowd before speaking. In front of him, some 2,000 citizens, trade unionists and elected officials who marched in the streets of the charming seaside resort. In the foreground, known faces like that of Johanna Rolland, mayor (Socialist Party, PS) of Nantes. It was she who mobilized the majority of the political leaders of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union: Olivier Faure (PS), Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Ruffin (La France insoumise, LFI), Marine Tondelier and Sandrine Rousseau (Europe Ecologie -The Greens, EELV), Fabien Roussel (French Communist Party)…
All made the trip this Wednesday to support Yannick Morez, who has become the ” symbol “ elected officials who have been victims of violence since he, on Wednesday May 17, meticulously detailed the reasons for his resignation before the Senate law commission. The aedile denounced “abandonment” of the public authorities when he was orchestrating the project, wanted by the State, to move a reception center for asylum seekers near a school.
Over the weeks, a handful of residents, joined by far-right activists, have challenged the installation. Threats and insults swept against, in particular, Yannick Morez. The elected official alerted the gendarmes, sub-prefect, prefect, prosecutor. Without success. On the night of March 23, the mayor’s two vehicles were deliberately set on fire. In response, little support. Then there was this demonstration on Saturday, April 29, during which the police used tear gas to keep far-right and far-left activists at bay. In early May, a new altercation in the streets of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, in the presence of his family, convinced Yannick Morez to throw in the towel. General practitioner, he has also announced that he wants to leave the town in which he has lived for thirty-two years.
Stop “the heckling” in the Assembly
“I did not expect to see so many people this Wednesday”, begins Yannick Morez, his eyes red with emotion. He tries to contain the tremolos that sting his voice: “ Since the announcement of my resignation, I have been immersed in a media whirlwind. I decided to say everything, to reveal everything to alert. My story is a national issue. » In front of him, the city councilors opine as evidence. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, violence against elected officials increased by 32% in 2022. “A vastly underestimated and intolerable reality, declares Johanna Rolland, annoyed. When a chosen one is attacked, it is the Republic that retreats. Especially since there is a unique context here. The far right has played a role that I refuse to ignore. Never again should a mayor feel abandoned. There must be a before and after Saint-Brevin. »
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