2023-10-26 07:56:55
For Serge De Carli, there is a “before” and an “after” the urban riots of the summer. Its town of Mont-Saint-Martin (Meurthe-et-Moselle), 9,000 inhabitants, located on the borders of France, Belgium and Luxembourg, was one of the most affected in the department: nine buildings damaged, 70 cars burned and a 25-year-old young man in a coma after a RAID shot – an investigation is in progress.
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While Elisabeth Borne must present, Thursday, October 26, the government plan in response to the violence which ignited the country from June 27 to July 7, after a teenager was killed by a police officer during a road check in Nanterre, the communist mayor of Mont-Saint-Martin, has still not turned the page: “We haven’t recovered from it. I am not the same as I was four months ago. »
It is “a big slap”whispers the chosen one, traumatized: “Forty years of personal commitment in the service of others” hit suddenly by “irrational, unspeakable violence”. Mr. De Carli has still not returned from what was recorded by the video surveillance cameras installed near the Special Education and Home Care Service (Sessad). He recounts, still stunned: three young hooded people are sitting on a bench, opposite the Sessad. Suddenly, one of them gets up, climbs the gate and sets fire to one of the buildings housing the teams who work to serve families facing autism. Then he comes out and goes back to sit with the other two, to watch the fire spread. The mayor still does not know if they were arrested.
Repair Work
That’s not all. One evening, the town hall was stormed by “around forty young people”, according to the mayor. The glass doors did not resist the iron bars for long. “They went all over the floors, even into my office”, he says. Everything was trashed, overturned, burned. The entire building came close to going up in smoke.
Serge De Carli himself had to flee in a hurry. Residents of the town of Val-Saint-Martin called him to warn him against a rumor which accused him of having requested the controversial intervention of the RAID, which he denies. “Mr. Mayorl’a-t-on averti, we like you. You must leave your home this evening. » The authorities advised him to stay in a hotel in Luxembourg for several days. But he didn’t want to go away for more than one night.
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Because for this 63-year-old city councilor, great-grandson of an Italian refugee fleeing fascism, the Republic is sacred. “My great-grandfather found asylum in a beautiful Republic. So, we don’t touch the Republic. » When the manager of the burned-down social center told him she wanted to leave, he replied: “Ah well, you’re going to have a problem, because the mayor wants you to stay there… The Republic is not backing down. In these neighborhoods, we need public service, and that’s my job. »
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