He had to explain himself to the senators following the resignation with a crash three weeks ago of the mayor of Saint-Brévin-les-Pins. Hearing by the law commission, the prefect of Loire-Atlantique Fabrice Rigoulet-Roze assured Wednesday that the State and himself had indeed supported the elected Yannick Morez but recognized “a collective failure in this affair. “This resignation is a serious event and it calls into question from the moment when an elected representative of the Republic considers that he is no longer able to exercise the mandate entrusted to him because of pressure, intimidation and threats accentuated by a political recovery of the far right and nationalist movements,” the prefect said.
The resignation of the mayor is in particular “based on the feeling of a lack of support from the State”, regretted the prefect, considering that “it is a collective failure and I take my part as territorial representative of the State “. It was before this same law commission that the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins had deplored the “flagrant” lack of support from the State since the formalization at the end of 2021 of the transfer near a school in his town of a reception center for asylum seekers. Yannick Morez had notably explained his choice to leave his functions by the fact that he had felt “lonely, abandoned”, and that his interlocutors seemed to minimize the threats aimed at him.
“The pressures were taken seriously”
These attacks culminated on March 22 in the early morning with the burning of two vehicles of the mayor in front of his home, the facade of which was also affected by the flames while he was sleeping there with his family. “Pressures taken seriously”, according to the prefect of Loire-Atlantique, who ensures that the decisions taken before the arson concerning the safety of the elected “seemed appropriate and proportionate at that time. “In retrospect, the question arises,” he added.
The sub-prefect of Saint-Nazaire, Michel Bergue, also interviewed, told senators that he had not received “any particular alert on the physical safety of elected officials” from Saint-Brevin before the fire. After the disaster, “the gendarmes also immediately took reinforced protective measures”, noted Fabrice Rigoulet-Roze. These included the passage of police patrols four times a day at the mayor’s home and registration in a file of priority calls for relief.