Grenoble Mayor Eric Piolle is being targeted by political figures after the death of a city maintenance worker. He is being criticized for not strengthening security in the Isère city.
Is the security policy implemented by the Grenoble city hall responsible for the death of a city agent? On Sunday, September 8, a 49-year-old municipal agent was shot dead while trying to stop the perpetrator of a traffic accident who was fleeing.
The city’s Les Écologistes mayor, Éric Piolle, spoke out to denounce this act. But some political figures are placing some of the responsibility on the mayor and his actions. Particularly since the series of shootings in the Isère city, a “gang war” denounced by Éric Vaillant, the public prosecutor of Grenoble.
“Tackling insecurity”
Karl Olive, a member of parliament for Ensemble pour la République (ex-Renaissance), took the opportunity to criticize the environmentalist on the TF1 channel. “Everyone must take responsibility (…) In terms of security, Éric Piolle has done nothing (…) It is time to arm the municipal police in this country,” he said, adding:
“It would also be good if Mr. Piolle could tackle insecurity, he is also partly responsible for it (…) Grenoble is not a Smurf village.”
A line similar to that held by the Horizons mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, invited on BFMTV this Monday, September 9. “Everyone knows that Éric Piolle is a mayor who is not necessarily security-oriented, authoritarian,” chided the local elected official from Nice.
Christian Estrosi also brought out an old attack dating from the election of the mayor of Grenoble. In June 2020, he said he wanted to take down the video surveillance cameras to “sell them to the mayor of Nice”. A dig (archived by France 3) which the mayor of Nice now uses to boast about his own security record.
Furthermore, Éric Piolle has also been attacked for truncated and out-of-context remarks about the risk of a “stray bullet”, made during a response on settling scores. A controversy that he sought to extinguish on RMC this Monday, September 9 in the morning:
“It’s the fachosphere that is distorting my words since there was a question about settling scores and I said: ‘our fear as mayors is a stray bullet for an innocent person. And, there, we are not in the context of settling scores. The fachosphere is getting excited, ok, it’s their life. But we are not in that context,” he reframed.
