Europe 1 with AFP 21:41 p.m., March 24, 2023

On Friday, the Constitutional Council validated the power given to prefects to evacuate by force, without going through a judge, a housing squatted illegally. However, the law does not authorize the prefect to order the eviction "without taking into account the personal or family situation of the occupant whose evacuation is requested".

The Constitutional Council on Friday validated the power given to prefects to evacuate by force, without going through a judge, a housing squatted illegally. The 2007 law - amended in 2020 - which authorizes such a procedure does not infringe respect for privacy, the inviolability of the home, or the right to an effective remedy since the evacuation decision can be challenged in summary proceedings before the administrative justice, said the "Sages". They therefore rejected a "priority question of constitutionality" (QPC) on this subject.

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A "reservation of interpretation"

However, the Council accompanied its decision with a "reservation of interpretation": the law, he considered, does not authorize the prefect to order the expulsion "without taking into account the personal or family situation of the occupant whose evacuation is requested". The Elders were invited to rule on this issue at the request of the lawyer of a woman who had been deported on the basis of the impugned provision.

Associations such as the Right to Housing (DAL), the Abbé Pierre Foundation or the Secours catholique had supported her in her approach, in particular to challenge a provision introduced into the law at the end of 2020, which extends the power of the prefect in terms of "forced evacuation" to any type of "home" - which according to the associations is too vague a formulation, paving the way for application even to empty housing.

The "reserve" introduced by the Sages, "it's better than nothing," commented Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, the spokesman of the DAL. But the overall rejection of the QPC is all the more disappointing as there is currently a "hardening" in the fight against squatters, noted Jean-Baptiste Eyraud. The associations are indeed standing up against a bill currently being examined in Parliament, which plans in particular to triple the penalties incurred by squatters.