Savoy: justice forces a mayor to authorize the construction of a Muslim school

The Grenoble administrative court forced the mayor of Albertville in Savoy to authorize the construction of a private primary school at the initiative of the Islamic Confederation Millî Görüs (CIMG), close to Turkey, we learned on Friday .

The decision made Tuesday cancels the refusal of the building permit, which had been filed in 2019 by the association to set up a school of 400 students in this city of about 20,000 inhabitants.

The court ruled that the reasons given by the town hall, relating in particular to the parking spaces, were not admissible.

He gives the latter two months to issue the building permit.

A project that could endanger the schools of the municipality

In a column published Friday by Le Figaro, the mayor (without label) Frédéric Burnier-Framboret, deeply regrets this decision, which he thinks to appeal.

He says he is "helpless" to "counter the establishment of associations or companies led by foreign powers, which promote a crystallization of identity at the heart of our territories".

Recourse to the Town Planning Code was "the only legislative means" at his disposal to oppose the construction of this school, he told AFP.

With the project to accommodate 400 pupils, the establishment would be "likely to endanger the classes, even the schools" of Albertville, which today welcome around 1,200.

A smaller-scale project "could have been discussed" but the city councilor said he had received "an objection" from the CIMG.

This association is also at the origin of a mosque project in Strasbourg, for which the ecological municipality voted on March 22 the "principle" of a subsidy of more than 2.5 million euros, attracting very strong criticism of the government.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin denounced "a federation which refused to sign the charter of principles of Islam in France and which defends a political Islam".

A school which "can only encourage communitarianism" estimates the mayor

Thursday, during the examination of the bill on separatism, the Senate voted a government amendment which provides for obliging the communities to inform the prefect, three months in advance, before any subsidy for the construction of a place of worship.

The planned school in Albertville "can only encourage communitarianism," said the mayor.

He specifies that it would be installed next to a mosque managed by the local branch of CIMG, with which he claims to have "good relations".

Asked by AFP at the national level, the CIMG did not respond immediately.