Two weeks have passed since the murder of Thomas in Crépol, and the case—the subject of a vast enterprise of political manipulation—has found new heralds. The mayor of the town of Romans-sur-Isère, who is politically classed as ‘miscellaneous Right’ (divers droite), i.e., on the Right but with no party affiliation, has decided to raise her voice to defend the facts and what she has been subjected to for so many years in her municipality. She now faces a death threat.
Marie-Hélène Thoraval, the courageous mayor of Romans-sur-Isère, the commune from which the Crépol attackers and Thomas’s murderer came, gave a long interview to Le Figaro about the situation in her town. Her assessment is unequivocal. The town has benefited from millions of public funds over the years, which have been focused almost exclusively on the La Monnaie district, where the murderers are from. This did not prevent the buildings financed with public funds from being devastated and looted during the June riots. In her opinion, the culprits know exactly what they are doing and target their actions:
Last July, some people burnt down the social housing office. The Chinese restaurant was stoned. And the local bar is still closed. Strangely enough, when you add it all up, you realise that none of the neighbourhood’s community businesses have been affected! In addition to the money that’s constantly being pumped in, damage costs us €500,000 a year.
She describes the day-to-day life of the La Monnaie district, visited daily by the police, who risk their lives by being attacked and pelted with stones. On the spot, families organised into clans, “generations of delinquents,” lay down the law and organise all kinds of traffic.
She protested at the silence surrounding the publication of the first names of the assailants, all of whom sounded North African, “as if the state didn’t want to see.” She also took offence at the refusal of the Valence public prosecutor’s office to accept that the attack by the gang from La Monnaie was racially motivated, despite the fact that many witnesses had testified to this.
Her outspokenness is not to everyone’s taste. Marie-Hélène Thoraval explains that she has been under pressure ever since she spoke out. A rally was organised against her by residents of the La Monnaie district, and she has since received unambiguous death threats via her Instagram account:
I received two anonymous calls that were operated from the Town Hall switchboard with a message that was more akin to intimidation, asking me if I had a Kalashnikov at home and if I had bodyguards. It went up a notch in the afternoon when I received a private message on Instagram saying that they were planning to decapitate me, that they would juggle with my skull, and that it would all be done within a month. It’s a real death threat.
The mayor has lodged a complaint and is very clear about her situation: “In these messages, I’m described as a fascist; I can imagine where that comes from,” she explained to BFM TV. But her determination remains unwavering: “I’m so encouraged to say out loud what I’m thinking that I’m going to continue.”
The Crépol affair has turned the tide of mobilisation and cold anger in France, and the mayor of Romans-sur-Isère has become the spokesman for a multitude of angry French people.
