"The French gendarmes who obeyed the orders of their superiors by implementing the Vel d'Hiv roundup, and other roundups still after and elsewhere, are the ancestors of those who today, with the same zeal, hunt the migrants, the undocumented, the rejected of human rights, these living beings who try to survive in poverty. ”
For this sentence, pronounced on July 19 during the commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv roundup, the EELV mayor of Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) Patrick Chaimovitch should have been tried this Tuesday, December 1.
Read also: Mayor EELV of Colombes compares the police to the Vichy police, Darmanin files a complaint
The politician was summoned to the 14th chamber of the Nanterre correctional court for "public insult to a body constituted, an official, a depositary of authority or a citizen in charge of a public service by word".
But during the hearing, Me Michael Goupil, the collaborator of Me Didier Seban, the council of the mayor, requested a postponement of the trial.
The lawyer invoked a meeting in Greater Paris which was to attend Patrick Chaimovitch this Tuesday afternoon.
The President of the 14th Chamber therefore postponed the case to May 4, 2021.
The mayor's "regrets"
Patrick Chaimovitch's statements had sparked a major controversy in the heart of the summer.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin denounced
“scandalous and unbearable remarks”
before filing a complaint.
The union of national police commissioners (SCPN) had meanwhile considered that the mayor,
"by his infamous words, now embodied the shame of the Republic and dishonored his mandate"
.
Elected officials from all sides - Valérie Pécresse, Olivier Faure ... - had also expressed their indignation.
Patrick Chaimovitch, elected mayor in the last municipal elections, had assured
"regret that [his] words may have caused confusion".
In a statement sent to AFP, he stressed that
"for [him] there was
no possible comparison between police and gendarmerie of a democratic state on the one hand, and police and gendarmerie of the Pétainist state. on the other hand
”.
He also insisted on his "
support for the police and gendarmes who exercise the heavy republican responsibility for security in extremely difficult conditions
".
