The senator (Les Républicains) Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio, also municipal councilor of Saint-Gratien (Val-d'Oise), denounced on Wednesday the " permanent impunity " of certain young people whose she is intimidated, after the decision of the municipality to remove a football field hosting wild games. Tensions crystallized after the announcement on May 29 of the redevelopment of a synthetic sports field installed at the foot of buildings in a working-class neighborhood.
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Objective according to the city: to avoid holding " clandestine tournaments " with " hundreds " of players who " appropriate the public space ". Wild games that bring together young people from different rival neighborhoods, like the one that took place in Grigny (Essonne) on May 26, in which 300 to 500 people participated.
The announcement of the removal of this land, which will become in part, a children's play area, angered a few dozen young adults. " They block roundabouts, they threw stones at the town hall, " denounced Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio, who was mayor of the town for 16 years. " Monday evening, they disembarked at 40 outside my house, doing the bazaar, insulting me, saying to my son + we know where your grandmother lives + ", she explained to AFP. The group returned the next day.
Eustache-Brinio's family filed a complaint Tuesday after someone made threats against the senator's mother, who lives in the football field. " They challenge me but they do not scare me at all ," she said, even if she reduced her trips in front of these young people who, according to her, are in " permanent impunity ".
Interrogated Tuesday during questions to the Senate government, the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner condemned facts “ unbearable, unacceptable. " I asked the prefect to speak with her so that all means are obviously put in place to guarantee her freedom of expression, " he said.
