In recent weeks, threats and attacks against parliamentarians have continued to proliferate against the backdrop of the health crisis. Garage and cars set on fire, tags, messages of intimidation, promise of beheading … While the deputies examine Monday, January 3 the bill to transform the health pass into a vaccination pass, these are precisely the health devices adopted by elected officials and the government health policies which are at the origin of a new wave of violence. Members of the presidential majority are thus particularly targeted.
While these threats and attacks are difficult to quantify, due to a lack of systematic feedback, they worry parties and parliamentarians. Thus, in session at the National Assembly Monday afternoon, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, who came to defend the bill, recalled his “Unwavering support for elected officials”. The president of the Law Commission, Yaël Braun-Pivet (La République en Marche, LRM), had already, the previous week, appealed to her colleagues on the benches of the Palais-Bourbon: “I would like us to denounce these actions together. “
Damien Abad, president of the Les Républicains (LR) group, also condemned during a press conference on Monday. “All threats to deputies”. “There is no imperative mandate, everyone is free to vote”, he underlined to recall the freedom of the ballot of the parliamentarians.
Death threats by dozens and complaints filed
The last spectacular assault on a member of the census majority occurred on December 29: the personal garage of the member for Oise Pascal Bois, in Chambly, was damaged by a fire while hostile inscriptions, possibly linked to the vaccine pass, were tagged on a perimeter wall of his home.
Since then, several other deputies have made public the threat messages received, such as the deputy for Seine-Maritime Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, spokesperson for the Horizons party, who was threatened with beheading in an email. She shared a snippet of the post on Twitter claiming that“No threat will dictate[it] [s]a way of voting. You mustn’t let anything go, don’t get used to it ”, calling for a mobilization of the political class.
No threat will dictate how I vote. You mustn’t let anything go, don’t get used to it. Faced with this rise … https://t.co/uZpUCBZBNb
Jacques Krabal (LRM), deputy for Aisne, lodged a complaint after receiving an email from a certain «Onvatetuer» promising him “Beheading on the public highway” and the elimination of“Emmanuel Macron, but also [des] deputies, judges, prosecutors, magistrates, ministers, wise men of the Constitutional Council who collaborated on these last drops of too much “. Threats similar to those received by the Moselle deputy Ludovic Mendes, elected by the majority, who had been threatened with beheading at the end of November. Members of the majority Denis Sommer (Doubs) and Barbara Bessot-Ballot (Haute-Saône) revealed a few days ago on Facebook that they had received death threats.
Manche deputy Bertrand Sorre (LRM), for his part, lodged a complaint for threats on Facebook, like the deputy of Finistère Erwan Balanant (Democratic Movement and Related Democrats, MDDA), who received death threats by email from people claiming to be antivax. “We must not let anything go”, said in a statement the Vendée elected Patrick Loiseau (MDDA), who will also file a complaint for death threats, as well as his Loiret colleague Stéphanie Rist (LRM), Meurthe-et-Moselle MP Laurent Garcia (MDDA) and Loire MPs Jean-Michel Mis (LRM) and Valéria Faure-Muntian (LRM).
Finally, the deputy president of the LRM group, Aurore Bergé, announced that she had lodged a complaint for a tweet comparing her to women shorn for collaboration after the Second World War. She denounced the intimidation aimed at “That parliamentarians no longer feel free to vote in their soul and conscience”, in an interview given to Sunday newspaper, 1is January. In particular, she called on the presidential candidates to “Ask their own activists to be extremely vigilant about their actions and words on social networks”.
A “specific point” expected in the coming weeks
Faced with these messages of hatred, threats and attacks, the elected representatives of the majority ask in particular for a “Unanimous condemnation” . They demand that tweets like that of the far-right candidate Florian Philippot be denounced where he threatens to “Communicate extensively on the names of the culprits”, in other words the deputies who will approve the health pass.
The President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand (LRM), must make a “Precise point” during the month of January with the interior ministers, Gerald Darmanin, and justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, about these threats and acts, but the date has not been set. At the end of November, a referent was appointed within the services of the National Assembly to “Collect reports” and ” to advise “ MPs.
But these attacks are not limited to parliamentarians. At the end of November, it was the car of the mayor of Briançon, Arnaud Murgia (LR), which had been set on fire. On the night of December 6 to 7, it was Bernard Denis, deputy mayor of Saint-Côme-du-Mont, in Manche, who had been threatened with death and saw two of his vehicles set on fire. The president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) and Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, is also due to meet with the Keeper of the Seals in the coming weeks to discuss this issue.