Charles Guyard / Photo credit: SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS / AFP
His resignation is a cry of despair that resounded in all the town halls of France. Victim of a fire and threats as part of a project to welcome asylum seekers in his town, the now former mayor of Saint-Brévin-les-Pins must meet the Prime Minister to discuss the circumstances of his departure from the commune of Loire-Atlantique, but also on the threats hanging over the mayors of France in a tense national social context.
“It was even up to Emmanuel Macron to move”
In Saint-Brévin, the inhabitants speculate on this interview. “I hope he will say the right things”, confides for example Michèle, a passerby. The good things that its resigning mayor, Yannick Morez, must first remind Élisabeth Borne according to Michèle, is an elementary notion: security. But also support, which it seems, lacked the chosen one, yet threatened for weeks before this invitation to Matignon. “He was assaulted and yet there is not a cat so it’s not normal”, grumbles Bruno, Brévinois. “Given how it happened, it was not up to him to move but to Borne to question the problems on the spot,” he adds.
An opinion shared by Chantal, also a resident of the town: “Given the circumstances, it was even up to Emmanuel Macron to move”. Since the mayor will still have the ear of the Prime Minister as much as he takes the opportunity to make a general inventory of the situation of mayors in France. What can be done to ensure their safety? According to Roch Chéraud, president of the Association of rural mayors in Loire-Atlantique, certain measures – simple to put in place – could change the situation.
Increased pressure on the mayors of France
“In our office of rural mayors, I wanted to do a little survey: I asked my colleagues, including the vice-president of the department, if they had the mobile number of their sub-prefect. ‘a; while everyone has ours. It’s not normal, but we get used to everything. We get used to misery. I think that at some point, our great politicians are going to have to come a little on the ground, see how it goes”, explains the chosen one.
The latter also points to the difficulties encountered by the mayors and the lack of response at the national level: “With the loneliness, the mental load, the pressure, we have already had a lot of burn out. Me, what scares me is is that tomorrow, we have suicides”, he warns. “There was an electric shock with this resignation of Yannick Morez. The bellows must not fall,” concludes Roch Chéraud. After an interview with the Senate at the end of the morning, Yannick Morez should meet Élisabeth Borne around 6:30 p.m.