The government wants to "increase criminal penalties against those who attack elected officials"

Elisabeth Borne met this Wednesday the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, Yannick Morez (DVD), who resigned after being targeted by an arson attack and threats from the far right. A meeting at the end of which, the government said it wanted to "increase criminal sanctions against those who attack elected officials".

"If we have been insufficiently reactive, we will mobilize more to protect elected officials in the face of the rise of violence," Elisabeth Borne had already said, while the mayor had deplored a "lack of support from the State" at the time of his resignation.

Also on Wednesday, exactly one week after his resignation that had created an electric shock, Mr. Morez will be heard by the Senate Law Commission at 11:15. Judging "intolerable" that he was targeted by these attacks, the head of government considered it necessary to act "upstream". "This is the meaning of the proposals that the Minister in charge of Local Authorities, Dominique Faure, will make next week" by launching the "Center for Analysis and Fight of Attacks on Elected Officials," she said. This structure "will make it possible to better coordinate the response of all the actors concerned: police, justice, prefect. We will also strengthen sanctions against those who attack elected officials," promised Elisabeth Borne.

Morez's home was set on fire in March, in connection with the hotly contested move near a kindergarten to a reception centre for asylum seekers that had existed since 2016 in this commune of Loire-Atlantique.