“It is not usual for us, it is the first time that we have chosen to go before the administrative court” says Emilie Chalas, municipal councilor, metropolitan and deputy (LREM) of Grenoble. What motivates this premiere? “We want to verify the legality of this decision” by pointing out several points which they believe could overturn the town hall’s decision to install, via a construction site open to the public (a COP) and 11,800 euros in funding, a wooden shelter on the Pierre-et -Marie-Curie, which has long since become one of the meeting places of the Yellow Vests movement.
12,000 euros for street furniture! The same street furniture that was destroyed for months on Saturdays – Emilie Chalas
For the municipal councilor, who made this appeal on January 22: “It is still in Isère a million damage for the local authorities and 400 million on the French national scale and that is therefore what it is” (the Yellow Vests movement, editor’s note) that the City of Grenoble donates 12,000 euros for street furniture. The same street furniture which has therefore been destroyed for months on Saturdays. It was obviously a subject that concerned us a lot and we wanted to check the legality of this act because at some point, we want to say enough is enough. We want to say is this, the red line has not been crossed beyond political consideration? Are we not beyond the terms of legality?
The arguments on the merits
On the merits, the five Grenoble residents who are launching this appeal (Emilie Chalas, Delphine Bense, Alain Cœur, François Ferrara, Bruno Salagnat), advised by their lawyer Aurélien Py, believe that the general interest of this work is not obvious. That it essentially benefits a political group, constituted in a de facto association, that it is also an occupation of a public domain in a dangerous place and that this can therefore constitute “a grant in kind” to a political group.
It is not in our habit, unlike other political groups in the city of Grenoble – Emilie Chalas
Arguments that strangle the wooden shelter, but will they be retained by administrative justice? Emilie Chalas believes in it. “It’s not our habit, unlike other political groups in the city of Grenoble. And that says a lot about the situation of dialogue with the majority, on the one hand, and the concern, on the other. hand, that we are dealing with a certain number of files, including this one in particular. We were obviously, like many Grenoble residents, very upset by this funding. So obviously, we cannot have any commitment, nor certainties on the finality of a possible judgment. But it seems to me that we have enough elements.
“It’s a really interesting question, whether public action can go that far, and I can’t wait to read the city’s arguments and see what the administrative tribunal will say about it.” concludes Emilie Chalas.
The lawyer Aurélien Py confides all the same that it is not for now: “this appeal is made on the merits, and not in summary proceedings… it could take a year or a year and a half”.