“Exiles have not always been welcome in Béziers”: the communist, Nicolas Cossange, reacts to Robert Ménard's comments on the fall of Bashar al-Assad

Nicolas Cossange, elected member of the communist opposition, in the running for the next municipal elections. Midi Libre – Pierre Saliba

In Béziers, in 2015, during a demonstration in support of Syrian refugees. Midi Libre – René Ferrando

Nicolas Cossange, elected member of the communist opposition, running in the next municipal elections, recalls that in 2015, the mayor of Béziers had shown himself to be hostile to the Syrian exiles who had found refuge in his city. 

Asked by Midi Libre about the twinning of Béziers with Maaloula, a Syrian village, and the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad after the takeover of the country by Islamist rebels, Robert Ménard said he was “happy for the Syrians but wary” and declared: “The fall of Assad is good news, he was a bloodthirsty tyrant. I imagine how happy the population must be”.

A position that made the elected communist Nicolas Cossange jump, quick to recall events that occurred in Béziers in September 2015, when eight Syrian families had found refuge, admittedly illegally, in empty council housing in La Devèze : “I am shocked by the way he is defending, almost the spokesperson for, the Syrian people, given the welcome he gave them on two occasions. Let us recall that he had arrived in the council housing, camera in hand and accompanied by armed municipal police officers, hammering home to exiles that they were not welcome.”

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“In my city, you are not welcome”

Indeed, the mayor of Béziers, with his tricolor sash, had gone to the doors of these squatted apartments, to tell the occupants himself that they had to leave for a city ready to welcome them: “You entered by breaking down its doors, you do not have to occupy its housing. In my city, you are not welcome”.

An episode to which a second controversy was added, wants to recall the communist elected official Nicolas Cossange: “For the front page of the municipal newspaper, he had hijacked an AFP photo showing migrants waiting in front of a train with the words “they are arriving”.”

The AFP photo, taken in Macedonia, had been modified in a photomontage for the municipal newspaper. Two inscriptions could be read on the train windows: “Béziers 3,865 km” and “Free schooling, accommodation and allowances for all”. The AFP, which had sued the City of Béziers and Robert Ménard, had been dismissed, due to procedural error.

“His opinion varies according to political opportunities”

Since then, the councilor has made his mea culpa, regretting “a mistake” of which he was “ashamed”… But according to his communist opponent: “Robert Ménard has a double discourse, and a permanent ability to stick to reality while forgetting his actions. It is demagogy, his opinion varies according to political opportunities”.

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