Having become a national symbol of violence targeting local elected officials, Christian Eurgal, the mayor of Montjoi, threatened with death by far-right networks, received the support of many elected officials gathered this Saturday, June 24 in this small town of Tarn-et -Garonne. Many are calling for a firmer response from the state and the judiciary.
The tricolor flag floated on the pediment of the town hall of Montjoi, this Saturday, June 24, alongside those of Europe and the Occitanie Region. However, it is to this symbol of the Republic and to the one who is the guarantor of its values, the mayor of this town of Tarn-et-Garonne Christian Eurgal, that two individuals from neighboring Lot-et-Garonne taken one night in May.
A stolen flag, degradations committed in the town and above all repeated death threats aimed at the mayor of Montjoi, designated as a vulgar game in an abject video, posted on May 22 on YouTube by the Toulouse influencer Papacito: these are the facts , which Christian Eurgal has suffered for more than 2 years for a trivial case of access to a path which opposes two of his constituents, which more than 200 elected officials from the Region have come to denounce.
Wearing the tricolor sash, parliamentarians, regional councillors, departmental councillors, presidents of intercommunalities, mayors, deputies came from all over Tarn-et-Garonne but also from Lot-et-Garonne and Lot, to express their support for the mayor of Montjoi, who has become, like his colleague from Saint-Brévin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique), a national symbol of violence targeting elected officials.
More than 200 people, including a large majority of elected officials, came to express their support for the mayor of Montjoi.
Among the personalities, two former ministers, Jean-Michel Baylet and Sylvia Pinel; the vice-president of the Occitanie Region Marie Castro representing Carole Delga; the president of the departmental council of Tarn-et-Garonne Michel Weill; the senators Pierre-Antoine Levi and François Bonhomme and the president of the association of mayors of Tarn-et-Garonne (AMF 82) Bernard Pezous. It was he who took the initiative for this rally of support, organized in a heavy context since in recent months, he recalls, other mayors of the department have suffered threatening tags on the wall of their home, stoning vehicle, until the physical attack on the mayor of Monclar-de-Quercy.
Under a blazing sun, Christian Eurgal, very moved, welcomed them in the shade of the town hall… where he had been sequestered for an hour by a resident, on March 24, 2022. First episode of this path affair which only earned the perpetrator a fine of 500 euros. “Everything that happened afterwards comes from this judgment which does not correspond to what Christian Eurgal suffered” thinks his lawyer Me Thierry Deville.
Fear must change sides, launches Jean-Michel Baylet, who expects concrete solutions from the State and greater firmness from justice.
Very close to the mayor of Montjoi and to this commune of Deux-Rives, of which he was a municipal councilor for two terms, Jean-Michel Baylet also regretted that “while this affair began almost 3 years ago, nothing nothing concrete happened. We are told about appointing a referent, but it is not up to what the elected officials are experiencing whether it is here, in Tarn-et-Garonne or elsewhere, and again this week with what happened to the mayor of Toulouse. We need a firm response from the state to defend the local elected officials who are the basis of the republican pact. I therefore launch a solemn appeal to justice so that fear changes sides”.
“Whoever touches an elected official wants to hit the Republic. We must be well aware of this evidence and hammer it at a time when elected officials are being targeted”, insists Michel Weill who asks Christian Eurgal to “hold on, stand up and worthy”.
“Not a week goes by without us witnessing a new populist drift, very often guided by the far right”, regrets Marie Castro. “It is a transpartisan fight which must mobilize the republican forces whose voice of reason must resound louder than that of these irresponsible”.
“Through this sad example”, Sylvie Pinel fears “a risk of trivialization of this type of act. It should alert us, we who are convinced Republicans”.
Émilie Saussine, the chief of staff of the prefect, recognizes that “the first link that is the mayor can also be the first exposed” but she expresses “the unfailing determination of the State which takes these attacks on elected officials with the greatest serious”.
