“Mom, why do people have balloons and white roses?” “Asks a child who sees passing the hundreds of people gathered for the white march in memory of Lisa, victim of the third femicide of the year. The 45-year-old woman was found in the trunk of a car last Saturday in Nice.
To pay homage to this Niçoise, nearly 500 people gathered on the boulevard de la Madeleine this Sunday, where white roses and candles were placed near a portrait of Lisa. Around 1:30 p.m., the procession, led by the children of the victim, headed for the promenade des Anglais where a minute of silence was observed and where a release of balloons took place in the presence of elected officials such as Christian Estrosi and Eric Ciotti.
“When something like this happens, the only thing we want is to be united”
“When it affects a loved one, it’s as if it were us,” says Yaska sadly surrounded by Alba and Hedi, in their twenties, who are close friends of Lisa’s children. They wear a white T-shirt with the victim’s photo printed on it. “It was important for us to be there for them. It’s the entourage, it’s the neighborhood. We have always known each other. If that happened to us, we would also like there to be people. When something like this happens, all you want and need is to be united. That’s all we have left ”.
The entourage but also people like Farah, a law student, wanted to walk in memory of Lisa. She confides to be “passed by there”, remembers threats such as “if I had a weapon, I would have shot you”. So today, looking with tears in her eyes, Lisa’s children, she feels lucky to have been able to get out of this relationship. In 2021, 113 women had been killed by their companion or ex-companion according to figures from the collective NousToutes, which relays on social networks the count of feminicides since 2018.
“This is not a news item”
The local branch of the collective was also present this Sunday “in support of relatives”. “It is a feminicide which has arrived locally and on which we can bring an important presence towards the family”, affirms one of the representatives of NousToutes06. She adds: “Unfortunately, we can see with these figures [quatre féminicides en huit jours] that this drama is not a news item, it is not something that happens once. It is representative of a systemic problem, which is made visible by these acts, which must continue to be combated, by raising awareness, by challenging, so that there are more means put in place and so that it cannot be no longer reproduce. “
Lisa’s ex-companion, a 60-year-old man, was indicted and imprisoned on Monday evening. He presented himself to the police last Saturday and admitted “having strangled the victim following an argument the reasons for which have yet to be established precisely,” said the public prosecutor of Nice.