Vosges: Near Épinal, Opposition Politician Convicted of Threatening Village Mayor

A defeated local election candidate in the Vosges threatened to kill a village mayor unless he resigned, sending messages that also threatened the mayor’s wife and child.

The 56-year-old man sent the mayor of Essegney, a village of about 750 people near Épinal, an SMS from a prepaid phone bought under a false name. “If by Wednesday evening you have not resigned from your position as mayor with your bunch of idiots, we will deal with your wife and your kid, and then you, we will kill you, you will bleed,” he wrote, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Police quickly identified the buyer through surveillance footage from the shop where the phone was purchased. Investigators also found an earlier threatening letter sent in May, warning the mayor to leave his office and the municipal council or face “a great misfortune” affecting him or a family member.

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If by Wednesday evening you have not resigned from your position as mayor with your bunch of idiots, we will deal with your wife and your kid, and then you, we will kill you, you will bleed.

The suspect, who led one of the two lists in the most recent municipal election and lost with 46.5% of the vote, admitted sending both threats. He said he had “lost his footing” and cited the mayor’s decision to field a list in the election, as well as a dispute over the allocation of a hunting-land lease.

Convicted of threatening to kill an elected official through a guilty-plea procedure, he received a two-year suspended sentence and a 2,000-euro fine. He cannot contact the mayor or his family for three years and is barred from the town hall. Vosges Matin reported that about 40 local elected officials and 20 Essegney residents gathered to support Mayor Emmanuel Gaboraud.

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A great misfortune will arrive upon you or a member of your family.