The mayor of Ile-Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) Mohamed Gnabaly has announced that he will file a complaint following the discovery on Tuesday November 10 of swastikas and a death threat tagged on the portal from his home.
Read also: Blows, threats, humiliations: the mayors tell an increasingly difficult daily life
“
This morning, I was woken up by neighbors explaining to me that there were swastikas and the inscription 'Death' on my portal.
It happened overnight from Monday to Tuesday,
”Mohamed Gnabaly, a thirty-something councilor at the head of this island town of nearly 8,000 inhabitants, told AFP.
The tags painted in red have since been removed, said the mayor (without a label), announcing that he would go to the police station in the afternoon to lodge a complaint.
"
It is a question of preserving my person and my family but also of preserving the symbol
" which represents the mayor, he underlined.
Reelected in 2020 for a second term, Mohamed Gnabaly said he did not know the authors of these tags, but blasted "
a very deleterious campaign
" which left "a
lot of tension
" in Ile-Saint-Denis, a city where “
85 nationalities
” live together.
"
The trivialization of violence against elected officials and also a kind of ambient discourse that is a little violent
" can also promote this type of fact, he said, while indicating "
remain calm
".
“
Let's face hatred, racism and violence.
To attack an elected representative of the people is to attack the entire French Republic
, ”the City reacted in a statement.
Racist threats or insults regularly affect mayors with an immigrant background.
The Association of Mayors of France (AMF) announced at the beginning of October the creation of an "
observatory of attacks against elected officials
", in the face of the resurgence of incivility and attacks to which they are the object.
A first assessment must be drawn up in spring 2021, according to the AMF, in particular to assess the application of the measures announced in a circular from the Chancellery, aimed at better criminal defense of mayors who are victims of contempt.
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