Police in Nice were on Saturday investigating an alleged antisemitic attack at the home of the city's mayor Christian Estrosi after a pig's head was found hung on the gate.
The severed part was accompanied by a poster bearing Estrosi's image on which was drawn a Star of David and an insult.
Estrosi, 70, who is married to a Jewish woman, returned on Friday night from an evening out with his wife to find the objects.
The former Grand prix motorcycle racer turned politician described the gesture as despicable.
"Everything I have always fought against in the city is now knocking at the door," he said on social media.
Estrosi is set to run for a fourth term as mayor in March in the municipal elections.
Eric Ciotti, his chief rival in the race for the job, on Saturday offered his support following the incident.
"It's a serious violation of human dignity and a direct attack on the fundamental values of the Republic," said the Union of the Right for the Republic leader.
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The Nice public prosecutor said inquiries were underway into threats and insults against a person in a position of public authority as well as incitement to hatred and violence on the grounds of religion.
Regional police chief Laurent Hottiaux added: ’‘The police are doing everything in their power to find, arrest and bring to justice the perpetrator of this act as quickly as possible."
In 2021, Estrosi authorised the hanging of an Israeli flag outside Nice city hall after supporting a ban on pro-Palestine protests.
In June 2025, a French court ordered Estrosi to remove Israeli flags from the city hall. Judges decided that the flags violated the "principle of neutrality" in public services since it constituted a political message.
During the coronavirus pandemic in February 2021, Estrosi called for tourists to stay away from the city and urged a weekend lockdown to stem one of the highest Covid-19 infection rates in France.
“We need strong measures that go beyond the nationwide 6pm curfew, either a tighter curfew, or a partial and time-specific lockdown,” Estrosi told French broadcaster Franceinfo.
According to the tracking website covidtracker.fr, Nice had registered 740 new cases per week per 100,000 residents.
