As 2024 comes to an end, it's time to look back at what made the news on Objectif Gard this year. In February, the imam of Bagnols was deported to Tunisia following controversial remarks, the Chemin-bas d'Avignon district, in Nîmes, caught fire, a controversy over the presence of eternal pollutants in Salindres broke out, the trash cans crowded into the Gard part of Greater Avignon and the town hall of Pont-Saint-Esprit was experiencing a political crisis.
It all starts from a video published on social networks in February. We see the imam of the At-Tawba mosque in Bagnols, Mahjoub Mahjoubi, mentioning “tricolor flags” which “have a satanic value” in a sermon. Very quickly, a controversy broke out and the imam pleads “slip of the tongue” while the Minister of the Interior at the time, Gérald Darmanin, requested the withdrawal of the residence permit of the imam, of Tunisian nationality although living in France since 1986. On February 22, thunderclap: the imam is deported to his country of origin. The controversy continues to swell, RN deputy Pascale Bordes demands the resignation of the mayor of Bagnols and RN deputy Pierre Meurin comes to put a plane ticket in the mosque's mailbox. Then, in March, the mayor of Bagnols Jean-Yves Chapelet will announce the termination of the lease of the mosque, located in a municipal building. This lease issue is still before the courts.
On February 20, a man in his forties was shot dead in Chemin-bas d'Avignon as he got out of his car where an eight-year-old child was. A tragedy, one more, in a neighborhood plagued by drug trafficking, and where guns speak too regularly. At the beginning of February, the Jean-Zay school had to be confined following gunshots nearby. In August, a man in his thirties was also shot. Faced with this protracted situation, residents suffer and certain associations, like the Restos du Coeur, are packing up.
Another scourge struck in the north of the department: the Génération futures association threw a wrench in the pond at the beginning of February by revealing alarming indicators of water pollution with PFAS, eternal pollutants, on the site of the Solvay factory in Salindres . The president of Alès Agglo Christophe Rivenq will try to reassure the population shortly after during a press conference during which he will attack Future Generations. At the end of September, Solvay will announce the closure of its factory, and some will link this decision to the controversy surrounding water pollution.
During this time, the inhabitants of the municipalities of SMICTOM Rhône-Garrigues, which takes care of the waste of the municipalities of Grand Avignon Gard and part of the municipalities of the CCPG, see their bins overflowing and not, or too little, being picked up. The consequence of the change of delegate on January 1, Véolia having handed over to Eco waste. Multiple dysfunctions are emerging, and the boss of Eco Déchets will come in February to defend himself before the mayors concernedwho will express their anger. Since then, Eco waste has filed for bankruptcy, and everything has returned to normal, the waste collection market having been taken over by the Nicollin company.
Finally, the political crisis within the Pont-Saint-Esprit municipal council, which began in the fall of 2023, reached its peak in February. After the resignation of eight elected representatives of the majority following disagreements with Mayor Claire Lapeyronie, this time it is the elected representatives of the opposition who are giving up their apron, causing new uncertain elections. To be continued in a future issue.
