French village mayor placed under police protection over far-right hate campaign
In the tiny medieval village of Montjoi, in south-west France, a dispute over the use of a rural public right of way, pitching a pig farmer against a British house owner and the local mayor, had been simmering for years. But since a far-right YouTuber took up the cause of the pig farmer, the quarrel has taken on a political and sinister dimension, and the mayor, who became the target of a viscous campaign of intimidation, including murder threats, is now placed under police protection. Christophe Gueugneau reports from Montjoi.
AtAt first, the story resembled those of so many villages across France, as caricatured in Gabriel Chevallier’s 1934 satirical novel Clochemerle, about the intrigues, petty disputes and rivalries of a small French commune. But the events in Montjoi, a tiny village in south-west France with a population of around 170, have taken on a political and sinister dimension.
