Faced with insults, violence and death threats from anti-health or anti-vaccine activists, the deputies are mobilizing.
“No democratic debate can take place under threat.
Political disagreement does not justify violence, ”denounce several elected officials in a joint statement released on Tuesday.
For several weeks, they denounce increasing violence, in full examination of the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass.
On Monday, LREM deputy Stéphane Claireaux announced his intention to file a complaint after being targeted the day before by projectiles in front of his home in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, launched by demonstrators against the health pass.
An attack which, according to him, "resembled a stoning".
On December 29, it was the LREM deputy for Oise Pascal Bois who denounced the fire in his personal garage in Chambly, mainly because of his support for the government's health policy.
"Unspeakable" acts
“When it comes to attacking, because of their opinions or their votes, the representatives of the people, in their homes or by death threats, it is the heart of democracy that is attacked.
The day when violence will dominate the public debate, the Republic will be dead and our democracy will be its first victim, ”denounce Damien Abad (LR), Olivier Becht (Agir Ensemble), Christophe Castaner (LREM), André Chassaigne (Left Democratic and republican), Jean-Christophe Lagarde (UDI), Patrick Mignola (MoDem), Bertrand Pancher (Freedoms and Territories), Mathilde Panot (La France Insoumise) and Valérie Rabault (Socialists and related parties), at the initiative of the joint press release.
Read also Antivax: insults, violence, death threats ... These deputies pro-vaccine pass fear for their lives
Judging the acts of violence "unspeakable", the deputies appeal to justice "so that the authors of threats, pressures and violence are quickly condemned", and assure not wanting "to give up the arms".
More than 300 complaints for "death threat" have been filed by national elected officials or "who appear in the media" since July 2021 and the establishment of the health pass, said Tuesday the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin.
"In this particular context of antivax, there are a lot of complaints for threats", also indicated the minister on RTL.
He clarified that there were also threats "in the name of radical Islam" and "of all kinds", and that "we can see an exponential increase".
Traveling to Nice, Emmanuel Macron denounced Monday an “unacceptable” and “intolerable” aggression, deploring “the intensification of violence” against elected officials.
Faced with the increase in attacks and threats, the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, will meet on Tuesday evening the Ministers of the Interior and of Justice, Gérald Darmanin and Éric Dupond-Moretti, to take stock of the number of cases identified and the legal response to be provided.
