The lifeless body of Hervé Neau, the mayor of Rezé, a municipality in the metropolis of Nantes, was found on Friday in the municipal premises. The mayor was found hanged in a fire escape by cleaning workers, according to West France. “There is no doubt about the suicide: he left letters for his relatives and instructions for the funeral”, said the Nantes prosecutor’s office. Four letters had been placed in plain sight on his desk, according to the regional daily. An investigation was opened and entrusted to the judicial police. According to West France, the mayor had recently contacted the Nantes prosecutor after receiving several malicious letters. Anonymous letters also sent to his relatives.
Hervé Neau had been elected during the last municipal elections, in 2020, on the Rezé citizen list. This was his first term as mayor but he had been a city councilor in the previous term. A large part of the 43 local elected officials gathered this morning in the municipal council chamber to pay tribute to him.
Many local elected officials reacted to the announcement of his death. “It’s a terrible tragedy, a real shockwrote the mayor (PS) of Nantes Johanna Rolland, on Twitter. All my support and all my thoughts to his family, his loved ones, his team and all the Rezéennes and Rezéens in this terrible ordeal. The deputy of Maine-et-Loire Matthieu Orphelin paid tribute to a “committed and exemplary mayor”. “All my thoughts go out to his family, the elected officials and the inhabitants of the town of Rezé”also published on the networks the LREM deputy for Loire-Atlantique Valérie Oppelt.
In a statement, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) and its president, the mayor (LR) of Cannes David Lisnard, “express their deep emotion and their solidarity with the family, the elected officials and the relatives of this mayor appreciated by all”. “The ongoing investigation should shed light on the circumstances and motivations of this tragedy which underlines, in any case, the strong pressure that many mayors are under on a daily basis”the statement added.
According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, 1,186 elected officials were targeted in the first eleven months of 2021, including 162 parliamentarians and 605 mayors or deputies who were victims of physical attacks. That is an increase of 47% compared to 2020.