“I cried”: many mayors of rural communities attacked since the elections | TF1 Info

• An elected official from Côtes-d’Armor has already resigned after being the victim of threats and vandalism.
• In the Somme, another councilor was attacked and injured by a political opponent.
• The number of resignations is breaking records, just two weeks after the first round of municipal elections.

Among the tricolor scarves, he has just abandoned his. Olivier Pellan saw it as the end of an ordeal. Since his election, the mayor of Moncontour has suffered threats and intimidation which have outraged the entire village of Côtes-d’Armor, and even those in the surrounding area. “We have no right to do that, I’m really outraged and I find it a total lack of respect”says a resident of the region in the TF1 8 p.m. news report above. “He has done nothing, yet, he starts his mandate and we attack him”points out a lady.

I don’t see myself going back to work today

Olivier Pellan, resigning mayor of Moncontour (Côtes-d’Armor)

His twelve days in office began with tags at his home, of which the resigning councilor showed the remaining traces to the TF1 camera. The inscription mentioned Ogec, the Catholic school management body, in reference to a controversial subsidy granted to an establishment in this town of just over 700 inhabitants.

A few days later, it was the turn of his vehicle to be vandalized, the last straw for him. He immediately sent his resignation to the prefect. “I don’t see myself going back to work today so that as soon as we decide something that we won’t like, it will immediately have an impact on me and my family context”he confides.

At least 130 attacks and threats

Proof of a climate of tension, at least 130 attacks or threats were recorded during municipal elections throughout the country. In Hem-Monacu, a village in the Somme with 137 inhabitants, the altercation took place just six days after the re-election of the mayor in the first round of municipal elections. On March 21, while Bernard Delefortrie was working at his office, one of the candidates from the defeated list showed up at the door, clearly under the influence of alcohol, and attacked him for no reason.

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“I opened the door for him. He started by insulting me. He pushed my shoulder there a second time, then I fell to the ground. And then he took the chair and threw it like that”shows the councilor. “I cried, because I saw myself dead”he tells the microphone of TF1. The alleged attacker was arrested and will be tried next September. He faces up to three years in prison, while the mayor also considered throwing in the towel before changing his mind. “If someone comes to complain, that doesn’t bother me. But if someone comes to attack me, that’s something I’ve never seen in my life.”he adds.

The number of attacks on elected officials continues to increase, for example there were 2,500 in 2024 alone. This is one of the reasons why the number of resignations continues to break records. More than 2,200 mayors decided to hang up their scarf between July 2020 and June 2025, or 40 each month on average.