From our special correspondent in L’Haÿ-les-Roses,
A beautiful sun, small pavilions, two grannies chatting under a light summer breeze. Replace the sound of engines with that of crickets and we bet the postcard would be all the rage. But in L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne), on this first Sunday in July, the city is not really in the mood for idleness.
Sunday, at 1:30 a.m., a car-ram forced the gate of the flag of the mayor of the city, Vincent Jeanbrun (LR). Leaving the burnt house in a hurry with her two children aged 5 and 7, Mélanie Nowak was targeted in her escape by fireworks. The wife of the city councilor, deputy mayor and departmental councilor, was hospitalized. “I do not have words strong enough to describe my emotion in the face of the horror of this night”, slept the city councilor in a press release. He was at the town hall during the attack. The Créteil prosecutor’s office immediately opened an investigation for “attempted murder”.
“Attacking the mayor, I have no words”
A few hours later, the inhabitants crossed Sunday morning are still struggling to “realize”. “Attacking the mayor, I don’t have the words”, elsa breath. The mother of the family lives in a residence just opposite the town hall. She has witnessed the attacks of the past few days firsthand. From his window, the view of barbed wire and tangled barricades in front of City Hall is breathtaking. When she approaches, she also sees the broken glass pane, particularly broken under the inscription “equality”. “This town is usually calm,” repeats the 30-year-old, before heading off with her two children.
“Attacking people in person is unspeakable. I wonder what it brings them, we are all shocked. We even manage to think of anything, it’s sad, ”reports Jocelyne, stunned, her gaze fixed on the town hall. Especially since the fifty-year-old knows the mayor well. His son attended the same college, and the aedile celebrated his wedding five years ago.
“You can be arrested at any time”
With her loose turquoise sweater and multicolored headband tied around her forehead, Kerla took advantage of her break to walk past the town hall. The caregiver lives in Chevilly, the neighboring town, but works in L’Haÿ-les-Roses. “There were children in the mayor’s house, it’s traumatic. I too have a 3-year-old, it scares me, ”says the 28-year-old mother. Her family is worried, and it is an understatement to say that the current climate worries her: “Since it attacks from everywhere, we can be arrested at any time, even if I usually don’t get checked by the police. At any time, it could fall on us. »
A few tens of meters further, the directional signs indicate Rungis. (Much) more modest and located a little closer to the international market, the The Hay-les-Roses has morfled. Part of the installation, inaugurated less than a year ago, was set on fire Thursday evening under the fire of the revolt.
“It does not make people want to come”
Installed in disaster with a dozen other colleagues, Jalled, the market gardener does not separate from his smile. But its number of customers has been halved: “With what happened, it doesn’t make people want to come. In addition, they are not necessarily aware that the market has been maintained. »
Here, unsurprisingly, Sunday morning’s attack is on everyone’s lips. “The mayor, you absolutely have to support him. In 2005, I have the impression that there was a claim, there I have the impression that it is gratuitous violence ”, asserts Leïla, 50 years old. “It’s worse than the ”yellow vests””, punctuates Geneviève, 75, including forty years spent in the city of around 30,000 inhabitants. Further on, customers leave a nice little word for their merchants. The butchers could not be installed outside, for lack of electricity. “A kilo of cherries, at 6 euros, to finish go”, hails Saïd, tidying up his stall. Behind the market gardener, the broken windows of the market say everything about the intensity of the destruction of the previous days. “We don’t want all that, it’s unfortunate,” he says fatalistically, without further explanation.
The end of the deal begins to take shape when police sirens break the ambient calm. Without announcing themselves, the motorcyclists of the forces of order begin the crossover of the summer. Announced just a few minutes earlier, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Gérald Darmanin and two ministers have already rushed into the town hall, with the regional president, Valérie Pécresse. On a balcony, on the top floor of the buildingVincent Jeanbrun testifies to the attack on the delegation quickly dispatched by the Elysée.
A few floors below, on solid ground, a heavy security device takes care of securing the area. Accustomed to crisscrossing the department, two police officers, like the inhabitants, still seem a little stunned. “Normally, L’Hay-les-Roses is not the Bronx,” blurted one of them, a gun slung over his shoulder.