the mayor in the heart of the turmoil

For twenty-four hours, Olivier Lepick was the most hated man in France. The mayor (without label) of Carnac (Morbihan), accused of having authorized the destruction of menhirs for the construction of a DIY store, has been pilloried by social networks since Thursday, June 8. Threatened and placed under police protection, he saw accelerated what many elected officials live everywhere in France. Like the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les Pins (Loire-Atlantique), Yannick Morez, who ended up resigning in May after an arson, many elected officials are delegitimized and face violence.

“After a few days of washing, I have a feeling of amazement”, confides Olivier Lepick, seated at the table in the living room of his home, a small Breton house in the center of Carnac. On this Sunday, the mayor has just awarded a prize to the yacht club and he is blowing, with the family.

The shock wave is not exhausted. The nearby Saint-Cornély church has just been tagged overnight from Saturday to Sunday: “To raze everything, like the menhirs”we wrote on the facade. “I am stunned by the magnitude taken by a case that did not deserve a national impact”, says the mayor of Carnac. But “an implacable mechanism has been put in place”he says.

“I had destroyed ‘The Mona Lisa’”

On June 6, indeed, West France publishes an article relaying the accusations of an amateur archaeologist: Christian Obeltz affirms that” the edge “ alignments of menhirs of Carnac, a world-renowned site, “39 menhirs” were destroyed, after a building permit had been issued by the town hall for the construction of a store.

“The symbol is so beautiful…sighs Olivier Lepick, also secretary general of the Capgemini group.. A bastard mayor, obviously corrupt, who destroys heritage for the benefit of large retailers… All the national press took up the article by West France. And this, by publishing photos of the large alignment of menhirs, while the site concerned is located in an ordinary artisanal area, three kilometers away, near a gas station and a waste disposal center. “It was to light the fuse with the stick of dynamite at the endnotes Mr. Lepick. I had destroyed The Mona Lisa; everything is in place for me to be lynched. »

News channels and social networks are on the move. Eric Zemmour, president of Reconquête!, made a video on site. “We destroy the past, and we tinker over it”he denounces, unduly attributing the menhirs to “Celtic Age”. “How could the town allow such a macre to take place on the site of the megalithic alignments of Carnac at a time when all Breton elected officials are mobilizing to have them listed as a World Heritage Site? »protests the deputy Les Républicains des Côtes-d’Armor Marc Le Fur, asking for a commission of inquiry. “Destroy multi-millennial menhirs for a store. What better illustration of our madness? »is indignant the ecologist deputy of Paris Sandrine Rousseau.

You have 55.62% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.