At the Congress of Mayors,
A gloomy sky hangs over the traditional family reunion of elected officials, coming from the four corners of France. Upon entry, the tone of the 105th Congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) is set: “Communities attacked, Republic threatened”. This year’s theme echoes the increase in violence suffered by elected officials in 2023 (+15%), including the spectacular car-ramming attack on the home of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-France). Marne), at the beginning of July.
According to a Cevipof survey published on Sunday, 69% of the mayors questioned say they have already been victims of incivility, and 39% have already suffered insults and insults. 20 minutes went to meet these elected officials, Porte de Versailles, in Paris, so that they could bear witness to this violence.
Jean-Claude Ducarre: “I was threatened with death”
“I have been mayor since 1995 and I have unfortunately experienced violence of various kinds on too many occasions. Slander, outrages…” breathes Jean-Claude Ducarre, mayor of Melay, a small town in Saône-et-Loire. The 59-year-old councilor has already filed a complaint “four or five times” during his mandate. His most striking memory dates from a few years ago: “I was threatened with death in an original way, so to speak… from one of my fellow citizens, with whom I had discussions. worries on several occasions and who has been the subject of psychiatric hospitalizations for attacks or attempted attacks against third parties, and against myself,” assures the elected official.
“He threatened to kill me by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, addressed to the public prosecutor. He described the procedure with which he was going to kill me… with a knife, he continues. I was stunned, worried, especially for my loved ones.” The defendant, who still lives in the town, was finally found guilty and fined 800 euros.. “Violence is increasingly part of our daily lives. I have the impression that being mayor has become an aggravating circumstance. People are even more aggressive with representatives of authority. »
Maryline Caravati: “The hedge around my house was set on fire”
“We get a lot of bird words.” Maryline Caravati, 59, is mayor of Saint-Germain, a town of 1,400 people in Haute-Saône. “We are used to receiving insults by email and threats diverted through social networks, ‘the mayor does nothing!’, ‘the mayor is completely ineffective’”, she sighs . Some comments are sexist in nature. “I would have difficulty repeating certain insults. But I’m a divorced woman, so people send me things that revolve around that, personal things… Sometimes for a simple blocked road, or work. People’s exasperation is transferred to us.”
Last July, in the context of the riots, she was woken up in the middle of the night by a neighbor. “The hedge around my house had been set on fire, I hadn’t heard anything. It was 2 a.m. and I was sleeping 5 meters from the hedge, it was really very close, so dangerous,” she says. Targeted act or malice of an arsonist? “There had been other hay fires the previous days, I had traveled as an elected official. The gendarmerie and the sub-prefect thought that the fire in my house was targeted… I had a lot of stress, for eight days, I was not well. I was afraid it would start again at my house or at someone else’s,” she says, adding that she had filed a complaint against X.
Benoit Vuillemin: “The mayor is the first target”
In the summer of 2020, from the start of his mandate, Benoit Vuillemin issued an order to fight against incivility in his town of Saône, in Doubs. “I had decided to prohibit gatherings of more than 5 people at night to fight against urban rodeos. After which, young people came to insult us in the street after a municipal council meeting. It was insults and threats. I decided to file a complaint,” says the elected official. “My father was mayor years before me here, and it seems to me that the office was much more respected. Today, the position is no longer there. The mayor is the first target, we are somewhat responsible for everything, within range of slaps,” he sighs. He now blocks his detractors on social networks.
Xavier Normand: “I was called a faggot”
“I was the victim, with my deputy, of contempt and verbal violence.” Xavier Normand, 55 years old and mayor of Villers-Sir-Simon for four terms, was forced to file a complaint against one of the 150 residents of this small village in Pas-de-Calais. “We had problems with a farmer, who has two beaucerons wandering around the village. This posed security problems for children who go to school in particular.” Following yet another discussion with the owner of the dogs, the elected official received insults. “He went to my deputy’s house to yell. He called me to insult me, and by phone message. I was called a faggot, and other homophobic insults, it was quite violent.” He and his deputy insisted on filing a complaint. “He had a few days of community service and civic training. It’s not a big deal “.
Faced with this violence, some mayors renounce their mandate. According to the Cevipof survey, nearly 1,300 mayors have resigned since 2020, or 450 per year, and 30% more than during the previous mandate.