Eric Ciotti’s parliamentary office in Nice was stoned overnight from Saturday to Sunday to “put pressure” and that he vote on Monday for the motion of censure on pension reform, the President of the Republicans reported on Twitter. “Tonight my permanence was stoned. The thugs who did this want to use violence to put pressure on my vote on Monday”, wrote the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, photos in support. We see one of the windows in pieces and the inscription “the motion or the pavement”.
Other elected officials targeted
“I will never give in to the new disciples of Terror,” he adds. In favor of the highly contested pension reform, Eric Ciotti has already indicated that his party would not vote “any” of the motions of censure tabled against the government, so as not to “add chaos to chaos”. But a handful of deputies from his camp have already announced that they would at least vote for the transpartisan motion presented by the independent group Liot.
Last night my permanence was stoned.
The thugs who did this want to violently pressure my vote on Monday.
I will never yield to the new disciples of Terror. pic.twitter.com/8sgs3q85HF
— Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) March 19, 2023
Opponents of the pension reform are taking advantage of the weekend to express their anger, after the activation of 49.3 by the Prime Minister on Thursday, and before the debate on Monday in the Assembly on the motions of Liot and the RN. Other pro-reform parliamentarians have also been targeted since Thursday.
Stickers were stuck that day on the permanence of the deputy of Val-de-Marne Mathieu Lefèvre (Renaissance) and that of the senator of Pas-de-Calais Amel Gacquerre (Centrist Union) was tagged on Friday. The public prosecutor of Colmar, Catherine Sorita-Minard, confirmed to AFP on Sunday the opening of an investigation for “intimidation of an elected official”, after degradations on the permanence in Colmar of the deputy of Haut-Rhin , Brigitte Klinkert, former Minister Delegate for Integration.
“Demonstrating is a right. Destroying is a crime”
Inscriptions like “you vote against us, we will remember it” were affixed to it, as reported by the newspaper L’Alsace. Renaissance MP Karl Olive testified that he came to the RMC studio on Sunday under police protection, after receiving threats. “To demonstrate is a right. To destroy is a crime” and “I want us to have a firm hand,” he said of the reprisals against elected officials.
As of Thursday evening, the patron saint of Renaissance deputies Aurore Bergé had asked the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to “mobilize state services” for the “protection of parliamentarians”.