The mayor of Carnac (Morbihan), taken to task after the destruction of menhirs in a commercial area of his commune, said Friday to AFP that his home had been placed under the protection of the gendarmerie following threats and insults.
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We will find you, we know your address, we will set you on fire...": Olivier Lepick says he has received dozens of messages of insults and threats on social networks, as well as his wife and children, since the controversy around the destruction of the menhirs broke out. He planned this Friday night to file a complaint after the "dumper of hatred" that was unleashed against him.
Misleading photos
An amateur archaeologist from Carnac had claimed on June 2 in a blog post that about forty small menhirs had been destroyed recently in a construction site of a DIY store. Brittany's Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) said the archaeological interest of the menhirs, discovered during excavations in 2015 in two old fences covered with coppices, was not established.
According to Olivier Lepick, "damage was committed last night" on the site of the site, illustrating the violent turn that the controversy around the menhirs has taken. "The sub-prefect, on his own initiative, decided to set up surveillance of my house and I admit that it reassured me," says the mayor of Carnac. The gendarmerie makes regular rounds around his home, as for the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins after the fire at his home, he explains. Olivier Lepick also deplores a media hype with sensational headlines and misleading photos.
See alsoCarnac: an area with 39 menhirs razed for a DIY store
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People think that we have made a DIY store in the alignments while it is a craft and commercial area that is 3 km away, in which there is already a gas station, the garbage dump and a supermarket, "he insists. The mayor acknowledges that "there was an administrative error" but "this ball is not the fact of the municipality" which respected the legislation according to him. "This area should have been the subject of an archaeological prescription, which was not the case, so everyone agreed to issue the building permit, including the DRAC," he said.
