“We have crossed a limit of horror,” says the mayor whose home was attacked

2023-07-02 20:58:50

Shock and indignation is felt throughout France after the early morning attack perpetrated with a burning car against the home of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, on the outskirts of Paris, during the riots that the country has been experiencing since Tuesday after the death in Nanterre of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager, from a shot by the Police. «Tonight we have crossed a limit in horror and ignominy. My home has been attacked and my family the victim of an assassination attempt,” the municipal councilor, Vincent Jeanbrun, denounced yesterday in a statement. “My determination to protect and serve the Republic is greater than ever. I won’t back down,” he added, still in shock at 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 are going to do everything possible to restore order as quickly as possible,” said Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.

Hours before the attack, Jeanbrun, 39, had explained to the LCI television channel that he was afraid, especially for his family. “This morning (Saturday), we woke up with graffiti everywhere on the walls of the city and in some places it says: ‘We know where you live, we are going to burn you alive,'” the mayor explained then, in favor of the fact that the Government declares a state of emergency in the face of the riots.

In the early hours of yesterday, the president, from the Los Republicanos party (moderate right), was, like the three previous nights, following the evolution of the disorders from the City Hall. At home, his wife, Mélanie Nowak, and his children, ages 5 and 7, were sleeping. At 1:30 a.m., one or more individuals crashed a car into the driveway of his home, a single-family home in a quiet residential neighborhood, before setting it on fire to burn down the property.

The family managed to flee through the backyard. As she left, Nowak, a departmental councilor, was attacked with several fireworks mortars. She is hospitalized and has a broken tibia. The children are traumatized after the attack.

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

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

The mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses has already made a drastic decision after the City Hall was attacked on Thursday night by a group of violent people. Jeanbrun ordered fences and barbed wire placed at the entrance to protect the building, a drastic decision that a week before he would never have thought he would be forced to make. He also decreed a curfew in some neighborhoods, which did not prevent the riots or the attack on his home.

“Why attack City Hall? We could understand a bit that they attacked the police stations, because they are angry with the police (for the death of Nahel), but the City Council…”, says Karla, who hopes that the Consistory will open its doors soon to get her three-year-old son’s passport years and go to Africa.

The Créteil Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation for attempted murder and is looking for the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attack. At press time, no arrest had yet been made. Stéphane Hardouin, Créteil prosecutor, explained that the first clues make them think that “the vehicle was launched to burn the house down.” Police have found a fire accelerator inside a soda bottle.