We will not revisit the facts concerning the arrival-departure of travelers who “occupied” the Arboras stadium except to note that the deputy mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, particularly reactive (probably out of fear of incidents during the Nice stage of the Tour de France, which would have caused negative repercussions in terms of image), received an email stating: “You’re going to take a 7.65 caliber bullet in the head, prepare your grave,” and signed “We the Roma.” Was this a real threat or simply the act of an idiot?
Rightfully, the Public Prosecutor of Nice, Eric Bedos, opened an investigation for electronic death threats following a complaint made by Christian Estrosi. That said, and condemned with the utmost firmness, it is necessary to acknowledge that every year, at the same time, the same problems with the reception of travelers repeat.
And, it’s always the same wave of rather demagogic and sometimes unhealthy remarks leading to a sort of competition and one-upmanship on the subject. Since we endlessly invoke respect for the law, wouldn’t it be better to consider the obligations that the same law imposes on communities in terms of spaces designated for the reception of travelers? Aren’t they full-fledged French citizens?
For Jacques Victor (PCF), general counselor: “It is therefore useless to make amalgams associating travelers with “thieves” and delinquents, or to use unworthy methods such as depriving populations with many children of water, disregarding the most basic sanitary conditions.
Unless one considers that the traveler communities consist of masochists seeking the most precarious and unsanitary conditions of stay possible, it is precisely because these phenomena recur every year that the causes should be addressed to find sustainable solutions, and certainly not by exploiting in the worst way the tensions created by this situation.”
And the elected official continues: “With obviously an additional notch in political excesses since the government and the Presidency of the Republic are assumed by the PS. It suffices in this respect to remember the remarks of the same elected officials when identical questions arose under the Sarkozy presidency. Because, evidently, as everyone has observed for years, the issue presented by the reception of travelers in the department is not new and does not date from the socialist presidency, which already well situates the political stance of these officials and the unhealthy exploitation they intend to make of a situation that does indeed pose a real problem.”
In fact, isn’t the responsibility of politics to foster better living together rather than exacerbate the fear of “the other?”
