The Strasbourg city council voted in principle to grant more than 2.5 million euros for the construction of a mosque, a decision which has been strongly criticized within the government.
With this referral to the administrative court, the prefecture wants "to obtain the cancellation of the deliberation of the municipal council".
The prefect of Bas-Rhin Josiane Chevalier decided on Tuesday to seize the administrative court of the "contentious deliberation" of the Strasbourg city council which voted in principle to grant more than 2.5 million euros for the construction of 'a mosque, the prefecture announced in a statement.
The vote of the City Council on March 22 provoked a strong reaction from the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who accused the environmentalist mayor of Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian of financing "foreign interference", in this case that of Turkey , on French soil.
The legality of the contested decision
The minister also criticized the Millî Görüs association, which carries the project, for not having signed in January the "Charter of the principles of Islam in France".
"The recent exchanges of letters between the prefect of Bas-Rhin and the mayor of Strasbourg" have "not led to the withdrawal of the deliberation of the municipal council", indicated for its part the prefecture, announcing that Josiane Chevalier had therefore "decided to refer the disputed deliberation to the Strasbourg Administrative Court".
"It is therefore a question of obtaining the cancellation of the deliberation of the municipal council, the legality of which we are contesting," the prefecture told AFP without giving further details on the means invoked.
The prefecture recalls that the subsidy, which still had to be confirmed by a second vote of the City Council, is intended for the Islamic Confederation of Milli Görüs (CIMG) which is leading the project of the Grand Mosque Eyyub Sultan, under construction in Strasbourg.
Millî Görüs' response
The announcement of this decision comes as Millî Görüs strongly rejected Tuesday the "unfounded" accusations of allegiance to Ankara or "separatism", during a press conference in the Alsatian capital.
Claiming to be "particularly affected" by the "many accusations" leveled against herself and her mosque project, the president of the future place of worship and of the CIMG East, Eyüp Sahin, considered that this was "not tolerable in a big country like France ".
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal ruled on Thursday that Millî Görüs went "against the values of the Republic" and was "not intended to organize activities, to exist in the Republic", without however announcing the dissolution of this organization.