An upsurge of physical and verbal attacks and online torrents of hatred directed at public officials are ringing alarm bells in France.
While violence hasn’t approached the level of the storming of the United States Capitol a year ago, there is mounting disquiet in France in the wake of apparent arson attacks in December that targeted a lawmaker and a Mayor, both aligned with President Emmanuel Macron.
Unrest has worsened as officials steadily increased pressure on the non-vaccinated to get COVID-19 jabs to curb the surge of infections fuelled by the Omicron variant.
The Ministry of the Interior has recorded a year-on-year increase of 47 per cent in acts of violence directed at elected officials and Public Servants through the first 11 months of 2021, with 162 lawmakers and 605 Mayors or their deputies reporting attacks.
Titled Decapitation, an email received by lawmaker, Ludovic Mendes in November read: “That’s how we dealt with tyrants during the French Revolution.”
During protests against France’s vaccine pass that bars the unvaccinated from cafés and other venues, about 30 angry people besieged the office of lawmaker, Romain Grau, shoving him and yelling furiously.
“Death! We’ll get you all” shouted one man who launched a slap at the lawmaker’s head.
Mr Grau said he feared the confrontation would finish “in a blood bath and a lynching”.
President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand said more than 540 of the 577 lawmakers had reported threats or verbal and physical attacks.
“France isn’t bathed in fire and blood. These are acts of brutal minorities,” Mr Ferrand said.
“Still, it seems to me that we have ratcheted up a notch, expressing a rage that is new,” he said.
In a country with ingrained traditions of violent contestation, where the revolutionaries of 1789 guillotined King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, his words cannot be taken lightly.
Paris, 31 January 2022
