The Police suspect that the anti-Semitic attack suffered by Mayor Estrosi was an electoral setup

This attack was initially reported by Estrosi like a antisemitic attack because his wife is Jewish. However, the investigation has taken an unexpected turn after the French justice system brought to justice this Friday two men arrested in the context of the case.

This incident occurred on the last Saturday of February when a pig’s head appeared hanging on the fence of Estrosi’s home. It was accompanied by a poster with his face, a star David and an insult to the Jewish community.

The mayor denounced this event as an anti-Semitic attack and the prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for incitement to religious hatred and aggravated violence against a public official. But the case has culminated in an unexpected twist.

The incident led to the arrest of two men. The oldest, 79 years old, is a former agent of the Territorial Surveillance Directorate (DST) converted to private detective. On the other hand, a 40-year-old businessman politically linked to Estrosi in the past.

According to several sources close to the procedure, investigators are now studying as their main hypothesis the possibility that the entire case involved a possible manipulation linked to the mayor’s own environment.

Research reveals that Both detainees would have acted in coordination with a collaborator from Estrosi, in charge of digital communication. This has led the judges to consider the hypothesis of a manipulation of the evidence.

The police investigation has also focused on other people involved. Last week, two Tunisian citizens were charged and sent to prison provisional after video surveillance cameras placed them near the place where the pig’s head appeared.

Analysis of the mobile phone of one of them revealed communications with the mayor’s close collaborator, which led investigators to examine possible links between the suspects and Estrosi’s political team.

At the moment, justice has not determined if the councilor himself had knowledge of the facts nor if he had any participation in a possible operation to stage the attack.

The case has also broken out at a politically delicate moment. Estrosi, a member of the center-right Horizons party — an ally of the French president Emmanuel Macron— is seeking a fourth term as mayor of Nice in this weekend’s municipal elections.

However, according to several demographic surveys, it comes in behind its main rival, Eric Ciottileader of the right-wing UDR party (Union of the Right for the Republic) and candidate supported by the National Gathering of Marine Le Pen.

Reported for defamation

Estrosi himself, after this attack occurred, criticized the French extreme right. He described the businessman Pierre-Édouard Stérin, close to Marine Le Pen, as an “anti-Semite”, blaming him for the alleged altercation. He went so far as to say that the group that had carried out this act was ideologically close to the French billionaire. This caused Stérin to denounce the mayor of Nice for defamation.

Estrosi’s main rival for the mayor of Nice is the right-wing Eric Ciottione of the main conservative leaders in French local politics and former member of the Republicans.

Ciotti ended up being expelled from the party for trying to reach an electoral agreement in 2024 with Le Pen, ahead of the French legislative elections. Currently, Ciotti is the president of the UDR formationa party located in the orbit of the French radical right that also has the support of the National Group in view of these municipal elections.

Regarding these investigations, Estrosi himself has rejected any involvement in the case and has denounced what he describes as a “absolutely ignominious machination“I want to know the truth about this case,” he said, “and the sooner it comes, the better,” the mayor concluded during a press conference held this week.