Shock in France due to the attack on the mayor’s family home in the suburbs of Paris

Shock and outrage are spreading across France after a car-fuelled attack on the mayor’s home in the early hours of Sunday morning L’Haÿ-les-Roses, on the outskirts of Paris, in the wake of the riots that have been ongoing in the country since Tuesday after the death in Nanterre de Nahel of a 17-year-old teenager by police fire.

“Tonight we have crossed the line in horror and in shame. My home was attacked, and my family a victim of assassination,” condemned the municipal councilor in a statement vincent jeanbrun. “My determination to protect and serve the Republic is greater than ever. I’m not coming back,” he added, still in shock over what had happened. “It is an assassination attempt of unspeakable cowardice”.

The entire French political class was outraged by this attack. “We will not leave any mayor alone. We will do everything possible to restore order as soon as possible,” said Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.

A few hours before the attack, Jeanbrun (39) explained it to the LCI television channel I was afraid especially for his family. “This morning [por el sábado]we woke up with graffiti everywhere on the city walls and in some places it says: ‘We know where you live, we will burn you alive,'” explained the mayor at the time, advocating for the Government to declare a state of emergency immediately before the riots.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, the mayor from the party Los Republicanos (moderate right), as he had the previous three nights, watched the evolution of the riots from the city hall.

At home his wife was sleeping, Melanie Nowak, and their children aged 5 and 7. At 1:30 a.m., one or more people drove a car into the driveway of his home, a family home in a quiet residential neighborhood. before you light it set property on fire. The family managed to escape through the yard. As she was leaving, Nowak, a ward councillor, was attacked with fireworks. was hospitalized and he has a broken tibia. The children were traumatized after the attack.

“I heard a noise and went outside to see if something had happened to my car. I thought they were setting cars on fire as usual,” explains the mayor’s neighbor. He says he called the fire brigade when he saw that the house was on fire. “What is the use of attacking the mayor’s home? I understand young people, but this is offensive,” says this man of Algerian origin, who does not want to reveal his name for security reasons.

“I could never have imagined that we would have to face a situation like this,” he explains. Olivier Lafaye, resident of the same neighborhood and secretary of the Renacimiento municipal group, the party of President Emmanuel Macron. “This has nothing to do with the death of a teenager. It’s a crime,” says another neighbor. “It’s an urban guerrilla”, Lafaye apostille.

Barb Wire

The mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses has already taken a drastic decision after the Town Hall was attacked by a group of thugs on Thursday night. Jeanbrun ordered fences and barbed wire to be erected at the entrance to protect the building, a drastic decision he never would have thought he would be forced to make a week ago. He also imposed a curfew in some neighborhoods, which did not prevent riots or an attack on his house.

“Why attack the city hall? We could hardly understand that the police stations were attacked, because they are angry at the police (because of Nahel’s death), but at the City Council,” says Karla, who hopes that the City Council will open its doors soon to get her three. – the annual passport of the son and go to Africa.

The public prosecutor’s office in Créteil opened a investigation for attempted murder and search for the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attack. No arrests had been made at press time. Stéphane Hardouin, the Créteil prosecutor, explained that the first clues lead them to think that “a vehicle was launched to burn the house.” Police found a fire accelerant in a soda bottle.