Jean-Luc Algay, mayor of L’Houmeau, a town in the agglomeration of La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), said he was attacked by one or more members of a group of travelers on Saturday August 19. A flagrant investigation has been opened to find the attacker, the prosecution said: “We are looking for an attacker, who punched in the stomach and knocked the mayor down. His identification is in progress, “said the deputy prosecutor of La Rochelle, Soraya Ahras, to an AFP correspondent.
Jean-Luc Algay, contacted by AFP, said he was assaulted early Saturday afternoon, trying to prevent a group of travelers from settling on the municipal football field of L’Houmeau, town of approximately 3,000 inhabitants. After advising them to go to the high-traffic area of ??the agglomeration of La Rochelle, “which they refused”, “a guy of thirty – I’m sixty – belted me in the face then in the chest and I started getting kicked before I was thrown into a car,” he testified.
“I gasped and fell to the ground. There, they filmed me saying, ‘The mayor is on the ground’, as if I were prey,” added the mayor, injured in the ribs and who was prescribed a temporary work stoppage of twelve days. .
According to his account, the attackers then took fright and left before the arrival of the gendarmerie. The latter received her complaint “Sunday afternoon before forwarding the file to the La Rochelle research brigade”, explained to AFP the communicating officer of the gendarmerie, Lieutenant-Colonel Sébastien Letellier. “Residents filmed the whole scene,” assured Jean-Luc Algay.
On July 7, the Minister in charge of Territorial Communities, Dominique Faure, detailed a five million euro plan to strengthen the protection of elected officials, without however managing to convince them, a few days after the car ram attack. from the residence of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne). The first measures of this plan had already been announced shortly after the arson of the home of the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique), who has since resigned.
