Resignation of the mayor of Saint-Brevin: a center for the fight against violence against elected officials launched on Wednesday

Its creation was announced in mid-March. A date was set after the very media resignation of the mayor of Saint-Brevin, Yannick Morez. A center “for analysis and the fight against violence against elected officials” will be launched on Wednesday, the minister responsible for local authorities said on Friday, following the resignation of the city councilor. It must be installed in the premises of the Ministry of the Interior.

“The idea is to map the violence against elected officials, to understand its origin in order to obviously be able to act in the field of prevention”, declared Minister Dominique Faure on BFMTV. “This mapping (…) we are going to give it a much greater influence, because we are going to give regular information on the analyzes that we carry out and the prevention actions that we are going to carry out in the coming weeks, taking into account the increase in this violence,” she added.

Soon aggravated penalties?

According to his cabinet, the center aims to “better prevent attacks, better coordinate actions (…) and to act faster and better by strengthening the presence of security forces alongside elected officials”.

The resignation of the mayor of Saint-Brevin comes after several weeks of pressure from the far right, opposed to a transfer project, near a school, a reception center for asylum seekers already present since 2016 in the town. In March, the residence of the city councilor had been the subject of an arson attack.

The announcement of his resignation caused great emotion in the political cl, especially as the elected official denounced a “lack of state support” to explain his decision. In response, the prefect of Loire-Atlantique indicated on Thursday that measures had been taken to protect the mayor, “in particular specific protection, in particular on the home”. “The prefecture and the gendarmerie were present”, also ured Dominique Faure on Friday.

Acts of physical or verbal violence against elected officials increased by 32% in 2022, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Among the avenues for curbing the phenomenon, the minister cited work with the Keeper of the Seals so that the sentences against those who attack elected officials are “of the same nature as when one attacks a gendarme or a policeman “.