The Republic took a beating in 2022. Outrages, threats and physical violence against mayors, deputies and municipal councilors because of their office increased by 15% last year, according to an assessment by the Association of mayors of France (AMF) unveiled by The Parisian. “For the year 2022, the AMF estimates around 1,500 [les] attacks on elected officials in France because of their functions. This figure is based on the facts known in the press and on the declarations made to the observatory”, underlines the association, specifying that it is only an estimate based on the “declarative”.
“Mayors are the main victims and to a lesser extent municipal councillors. On the facts, 50% are victims of insults, 40% of threats and 10% of intentional violence”, specifies the AMF. The circumstances of the facts are in 75% of cases relating “to direct relations with a citizen”, for example when a mayor “admonishes a citizen for uncivil behavior […] which leads to a violent altercation.
The updated legal response
Social networks, through their amplifying effect, also constitute an “aggravating” factor of the phenomenon, the violence of comments made online sometimes turning into physical violence. The AMF has two possible explanations: the “liberation of the word of mayors” or “the tensions of society going through multiple crises”.
The services of the Ministry of the Interior must communicate consolidated figures in the coming weeks. The AMF has set up in recent years “training in the management of incivility”, in conjunction with the GIGN, while an observatory of attacks on elected officials was created in 2020.
A law promulgated on January 24 allows associations of elected officials, but also the National Assembly, the Senate, the European Parliament and the local authority concerned to bring civil action, a right previously reserved only for departmental associations of mayors. The law also extends the scope of offenses that may give rise to a civil action to “all crimes and misdemeanors against persons or property” as well as “all press offences”. The Keeper of the Seals, Éric Dupond-Moretti, drew the attention of the prosecution in a circular dated February 10 which lists all the provisions of this law.