“Vigilance, I will have it”, assures the new mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins

2023-06-12 09:30:31

Dorothée Pacaud became mayor of Saint-Brevin, in Loire-Atlantique, Fridayone month after the resignation of Yannick Morez, forced to resign by threats and the burning of his house while he was defending a reception center project for asylum seekers. The election of her successor on Friday was disrupted by a dozen far-right activists. Inside the council chamber, she described to France Inter this Monday, there were “members of the local collective”; “when they started distributing their leaflets, they were asked not to disturb the session”. Then far-right activists, from Angers and Tours according to the new mayor, posted themselves at the windows, and the gendarmerie then intervened to push them back.

“We have already had many meetings with the collective, the discussions have never succeeded since, for them, it is the abandonment of the project or nothing. So they affiliated themselves with far-right parties and groups, ”describes Yannick Morez’s former first assistant. And to add that “from there the dialogue is no longer possible”.

“There is no reason to give in”

In Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, a reception center for asylum seekers (CADA) has existed since 2016. “The reception is going very well, we have had no incidents”, affirms the new city councilor, then that Friday the demonstrators made the link between the municipality and the tragic events in Annecy. In 2021, the state announced its desire to move it to another neighborhood, near a school. Residents and worried parents were received at the town hall, “we explained the project to them”, she said, but “a small group – I insist – no longer wants to discuss, for them it is the withdrawal of the project or Nothing “. But “there is no reason to give in. (…) The right to asylum corresponds to a constitutional right, it is one of the things that we wish to defend”, explains the first magistrate of Saint-Brevin.

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Asked about the concerns that she or those close to her might have for her safety, Dorothée Pacaud dismissed them. “Vigilance, I will have it, my husband has it too”. Yannick Morez had partly justified his resignation by the “glaring” lack of state support since the formalization of the threats. “I don’t have close police protection but the police are vigilant. The prefect called me on Friday evening, the gendarmerie is very present, I hope that it will continue and that after I will not need it anymore”.