An extremely unpleasant experience for those on the receiving end, verbal abuse and physical violence against local and regional elected representatives is on the rise throughout Europe. As well as being traumatic and damaging, such violence can also have a "demotivating" effect on elected representatives and deter citizens from engaging in politics, noted the Congress in a debate on the subject on Thursday 26 October.
Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of Haÿ-les-Roses, a town south of Paris, will never forget the night of 1 July 2023. As rioting broke out in towns and cities across France, the home where his wife and children were sleeping was ram-raided by rioters who tried to set it alight, while much of the town was ransacked. The mayor believes the attack was prompted by his refusal to tolerate drug dealing and disorderly conduct.
Kristoffer Tamsons (R, Sweden, EPP/CCE), co-rapporteur in October 2022 of a Congress report on the impact of hate speech and fake news on the working conditions of local and regional elected representatives, pointed out that elected representatives are often "the last line of defence for democracy and human rights when it comes to tackling violence", which has become "a European challenge that concerns us all". In Sweden, local and regional elected representatives can receive training to help them deal with any threats they might receive, and these threats are regularly studied and measured in order to counter them more effectively.
A former Dutch vice-president of the Congress had to have bodyguards because of his efforts to combat the local mafia. The mayor of Gdansk, Paweł Adamowicz, was killed by a local man with a history of violence while attending a charity event in January 2019.
During the debate, several members of the Congress talked about the threats or verbal abuse to which they had at times been personally subjected; several said that these phenomena affected women local elected representatives more often than men, and that elected representatives from minority groups were also more likely to be targeted than others.
Pauline Sterrer (L, Austria, EPP/CCE) recalled how an attempt had been made on the life of an Austrian local councillor and that one mayor had committed suicide after receiving threats; a third of members of the Austrian town councillors' association had already received threats, women more often than men. As a result, "many elected representatives decline to run for re-election, and those who suffer abuse feel increasingly isolated".
At the end of the debate, Congress President Marc Cools (Belgium, ILDG) also returned to the subject of verbal abuse in politics: "We too must never resort to insults, and must always remember that democracy means showing respect for others".
