a rebellious mayor attacked on his way home from a demonstration

2023-09-25 01:20:00

The mayor of Grabels said he was “pressed against the wall” and “threatened as a ‘friend of the Arabs’” on Saturday, while returning from a rally in Montpellier.

By Isabelle Missiaen for Le Point René Revol, mayor of Grabels in Hérault, during the campaign for the 2010 regional elections. © MICHEL CLEMENTZ / MAXPPP / WORLDPICTURES/MAXPPP Published on 09/25/2023 at 1:20 a.m.

René Revol was returning home on Saturday September 23, after participating in the rally against police violence in Montpellier, when he was attacked by two individuals. The mayor of Grabels, in Hérault, recounted on he lost “nothing by waiting”. He was “not injured”, he reassures, only “shocked and outraged”.

According to France Bluethe councilor intends to file a complaint on Monday.

“This aggression is unacceptable, and this desire for intimidation will not make us bend in our determination to defend law and justice, against racism and police violence,” writes René Revol, who is committed to continuing to “ defend human rights for all and in particular a dignified welcome for refugees.”

Yesterday Saturday, while returning home from the demonstration in Montpellier, I was stopped by two individuals who blocked me against a wall, threatened me as a “friend of the Arabs”, and before leaving told me declared that I lost nothing by waiting. Having not been…

— René Revol (@RevolRene) September 24, 2023

Death threats this summer

This is not the mayor’s first threat. Already in July, his position against the mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, who had refused to marry an Algerian in an irregular situation, had earned him a surge of hatred on social networks. “After the provocations this summer by the far right against me, and in particular the death threats for which I filed a complaint, this incident is not neutral,” he points out on X.

The elected official “calls on the state authorities to ensure that all means are implemented to ensure that such attacks do not happen again. »