In Rouen, the organizers of a xenophobic evening entitled “Foreigners outside” cancel their event, despite legal authorization

The socialist mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, issued a municipal decree on Thursday banning this evening organised by an identitarian bar.

The organizers of a xenophobic evening called “Foreign Lands” (“Strangers outside”in French), which was to be held on Friday evening in an identity bar in Rouen, finally announced on Friday June 28 its cancellation, despite the green light from the courts seeking summary proceedings. “To take into account a certain emotion resulting from the provocative nature of the title of the evening, a title likely to attribute to the members of the association feelings or intentions which are not their own, when this evening had no other aim than to initiate a debate on immigration in France, the association decided on its own initiative to cancel the evening”, write the organizers on social networks.

On Thursday, the socialist mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, had issued a municipal decree banning this evening organized by the right-wing identity bar “Le Mora”. But the association organizing the evening had subsequently filed an interim relief application with the Rouen administrative court to request the suspension of the municipal decree. The court ruled in their favor late Friday afternoon, according to the decision consulted by AFP.

“Disturbance of public order resulting from an attack” to human dignity which would allow the mayor of Rouen to ban the evening “is not characterized in the circumstances”wrote the interim relief judge in his order. According to him, it has not been established at this stage that “the slogan Ausländer Raus which gave its title to the evening organized on June 28, 2024 by the association Union normande de France comes, even probably, from propaganda or songs broadcast during the National Socialist regime [nazi]“.

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol immediately announced on his intention to appeal this decision to the Council of State. “I maintain that a call to xenophobia such as “Foreigners outside” (Ausländer Raus, German Nazi slogan) has no place neither in Rouen nor anywhere in our Republic”underlines the mayor of Rouen.

“Foreign Lands” is a xenophobic slogan that has gone viral after being hijacked by young people in Germany who sing it to the techno tune of “Love always”by DJ Gigi D’Agostino, sometimes embellished with Nazi salutes as we can see in certain videos.