Some came to support the project. The others criticize him. On Saturday, a demonstration around a project to welcome refugees generated strong tensions between the participants in the small town of Callac (Côtes-d’Armor). A little over a thousand people were gathered at two different points. In the middle, some 200 gendarmes tried to enforce calm. In vain. In the middle of the afternoon, projectiles and tear gas canisters were fired during a face-to-face between the police and part of the procession of project defenders who were trying to join the rally. opponents, supported in particular by several members of Reconquest, the party of Eric Zemmour. “It’s only low-level political recovery,” said Laure-Line Inderbitzin, deputy mayor of Callac, a town she describes as a “welcoming land”.
The commune of Callac was chosen by the private endowment fund “Merci” for a project to welcome political refugees. Baptized “Horizon” and “based around the professional reintegration” of refugees benefiting from a ten-year residence permit, this project aims to revitalize this rural town in central Brittany which has lost more than 1,000 inhabitants since the 1960s.
An association of inhabitants calls for a referendum
The project has received the approval of the municipal council of Callac, but is meeting opposition in particular from an association, “Les Amis de Callac et des environs”, which is calling for the organization of a referendum. A consultation which would be “illegal”, recalled the prefect of Côtes d’Armor Stéphane Rouvé on Friday, since “the reception of refugees is the responsibility of the State”. “Callac is a small town of 2,200 inhabitants which already hosts around fifty refugees. And a figure to give you: today, there is 0% incivility linked to refugees, ”assures the deputy mayor.
The double demonstration caused no injuries. No arrests were made.