Seized as the previous week by the League of Human Rights (LDH) in summary proceedings - an emergency procedure - the administrative court of Montpellier ordered the municipality of Perpignan to "remove the nativity scene of the Nativity, or pessebre (in Catalan, Editor's note)", under penalty of a penalty of "one hundred euros per day of delay", according to a decision rendered less than 24 hours after hearing the parties.
"It is a nativity scene with Joseph, Mary, the Three Kings who show that we are indeed in a Catholic nativity scene, contrary to the law of 1905" of separation of Churches and State, had pleaded Tuesday Sophie Mazas, lawyer and president of the LDH of Hérault.
"We are truly in the tradition", had retorted the lawyer of the city, Delphine Joubes, also underlining that the crib had been erected in a "patio" of the Town hall "dedicated to Catalanity" and by which "People who wish to come to the town hall for administrative procedures do not pass".
The conclusions of the town hall "are rejected", briefly indicated the administrative court, whose precise motivation will be known later.
Louis Aliot, figure of the National Rally, and Robert Ménard, the mayor of Béziers close to the RN, "think they can violate the law and the Constitution with impunity", reacted to AFP Me Mazas, judging "problematic" that the prefects of Hérault and Pyrénées-Orientales did "not react" to "enforce the law".
The head of the LDH also denounces "the instrumentalization of religion by the far right for political purposes".
"The strength of secularism is the freedom of everyone to live their belief personally and in the places of worship provided for this purpose: the crèche in the church, the civil status and the management of the city at the town hall,” she added.
The mayor of Perpignan immediately threw the ball back to him: "Unfortunately, the League for Human Rights and several political organizations have decided to exploit the secularism of the Republic and administrative justice to obstruct the expression of our traditions. , of our legacies and more generally to prevent us from being who we are", wrote Louis Aliot in a press release.
The unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the RN denounces a "decision in total discrepancy with the popular enthusiasm and the wonder aroused by the pessebre", admired according to him by "thousands of people" since November 25.
Pending official notification, "the city reaffirms its attachment to all the elements of our Catalan culture and of which the pessebre is a part".
The nurseries of Beaucaire (Gard) and Béziers are regularly prosecuted but continue to be installed each year by the mayors concerned.
On November 16, the Council of State confirmed the ban on the Christmas crib of the town hall of Beaucaire, led by the far-right mayor Julien Sanchez.
© 2022 AFP