“Complicated mandates, I have known. Exacerbated reactions from some angry residents, too. But, before, it corresponded to epiphenomena, remembers Nadine Kersaudy. Now, it’s a general atmosphere. ” The mayor of Cléden-Cap-Sizun (Finistère) knows her constituents like the back of her hand. Elected since 1995, she learned with bitterness of the resignation of Yannick Morez, her counterpart from Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique). Since the announcement of the move of a reception center for asylum seekers in his town, the elected various right had to face acts of intimidation and threats.
These actions culminated in March with the arson of his home, and led him to give up his mandate. “I tell myself more and more that finding candidates for the municipal elections of 2026 is going to be very difficult, continues Nadine Kersaudy. Before, when we had hard knocks, threats, we said to ourselves ‘we have to hold on’ with the rest of the municipal team. Now, I have the impression that the mayors are more and more alone.”
The impact of social networks
This general impression that relations with citizens have deteriorated is widely shared among mayors. The city councilors interviewed by L’Express, often elected for a long time, for three, four, five or more terms, all tell of the growing virulence that is contaminating social relations. According to Gérard Dué, mayor of Croisilles (Pas-de-Calais) since 1995, the development of social networks has a share of responsibility: “The arrival of Facebook has changed many things in the life of the town.” In 2020, he was pushed to the ground by a young man after going in front of a house due to a noise at night. This altercation caused him four days off work and he had to wear a wrist splint. “Today, anyone lets off steam on social networks, he continues. Do you have a problem with the neighborhood? Of pipes at 11 p.m.? You are going to take it out on the town hall, and the comments will not be at all pleasant.”
“Facebook is not only a place of solicitation. It is also that of insults, even harassment, also believes Eric Krezel, elected representative of Ceffonds (Haute-Marne) and vice-president of the Association of rural mayors of France. From the moment you can write everything on social networks, there is a form of general impunity. And when you find yourself in front of the mayor, you have the impression of being able to insult him out loud.
Death threats
According to an Ifop poll published in November 2022, more than 1 in 2 mayors (55%) say they do not wish to run again at the end of their mandate, in 2026. A record. And nearly a thousand of them have resigned over the past two years. The reasons are multiple: increasingly tight budgets, loss of skills, thorny administrative issues, but also… the violence of some citizens.
Romain Colas, mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine (Essonne), has been under threat for seven years. Entered the town hall in 2008, the elected socialist faces in 2016 the first intimidation. At the time, three women suspected of having wanted to commit an attack in Paris were arrested in his town. The mayor responds to journalists in the middle of the night, and is interrupted by an individual making racist remarks. “Since then, I have regularly received death threats from the fachosphere, he says. They also weigh on my son and his mother.” He ended up filing a complaint in February, after the discovery on the town hall of a tag in chalk representing a Nazi symbol adorned with the inscription “Viking will kill Colas” (“the Viking will kill Colas”). “It’s stupid, but now my front door is systematically closed, he says. This was not the case before, but when we receive letters saying ‘we know where you live’ , we have to think about it.” Romain Colas does not think that these threats emanate only from his municipality, and believes that he is on “the short list of the fachosphere”.
Although the mayor is by far the political figure favored by the French (more than 8 out of 10 French people have a good opinion of them, when they are only 38% for elected officials in general, according to an Ifop poll for The JDD), they are also particularly vulnerable to violence. In 2022, attacks on city officials jumped 15%. According to the Association of Mayors of France, 1,500 attacks were to be deplored last year. In most cases (75%), these facts are linked “to direct relations with a citizen”.
“You do nothing for me”
Often, these altercations are linked to a call to order from the mayor to one of its inhabitants committing incivility. But they can also be caused by a request that a person considers unsatisfied, or which is slow to be fulfilled. “During my previous mandate, a man who was looking for accommodation stood in front of my car, at the town hall, and swore to me that he would not move until he got what he wanted. recalls Stéphan Rossignol, mayor of La Grande-Motte (Hérault) since 2008. This is one case among others. I lose count of the number of times people approach me at the market and get annoyed to tell me, ‘You’re not doing anything for me.'”
Elected locally, particularly in rural areas and in small towns, the mayor is often perceived as the first interlocutor of the French with the State. “They therefore often make us responsible for missions over which we have no control, says the mayor of Cléden-Cap-Sizun, Nadine Kersaudy. People now come to see me to talk to me about electricity, telecoms, the deployment fibre… But it’s not up to the mayor to answer these questions!” The progress of the dematerialization of public services has also gone through this. With the acceleration of the process, the defender of rights, Claire Hédon, noted in April that he had received 125,456 complaints – or 9% more than the previous year. “People often have the feeling that the town hall is the last number with a human behind that they can call, notes the mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine, Romain Colas. Inevitably, some of the people who turn to us have the feeling that all the doors have closed on them… And are often more aggressive.”
In reaction to the resignation of the mayor of Saint-Brevin, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, made it known that she wished to receive him on Wednesday May 17. At the same time, Matignon also announced on May 14 the creation of a “center for the analysis and fight against attacks on elected officials” which should make it possible “to better coordinate the response of all the actors concerned: police, justice, prefect “. The government finally plans to “strengthen the sanctions against those who attack elected officials”. Enough to make the aggressors around the corner hesitate?