we explain the controversy around the authorization defended by Eric Piolle

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The Grenoble city council must decide on Monday May 16 on the authorization of the burkini, but also the monokini, in municipal swimming pools. A decision that divides even within the town hall.

Will the regulations for public swimming pools in Grenoble change? For the environmental mayor of the city, Eric Piolle, the authorization for swimming in the port of the burkini, covering jerseys (anti-UV for example) or even the monokini, must be recorded. “We just have to allow women to dress or undress as they wish”he summarized on franceinfo, Monday, May 16, before an electric municipal council.

If the council votes in favor of the text called “Conditions and prices for access to municipal swimming pools”, this modification should come into force on June 1.. But before the vote, nothing is decided. The division is very clear within the municipality and in the own camp of Eric Piolle about the burkini, which eclipses the other changes provided for by the text. Several demonstrations of support or denunciation of this authorization are held on the sidelines of the council, as France 3 Auvergne Rhône-Alpes specifies. Franceinfo summarizes the controversy.

What is the mayor of Grenoble defending?

Eric Piolle wants to vote for the authorization of the burkini and the monokini before the opening of the summer season, at the beginning of June. He wants to come back “to law and simplicity” by lifting certain clothing prohibitions. According to a pictogram distributed by the city of Grenoble and taken up by France Bleu Isère, it is a question of authorizing “all clothing designed for swimming and close to the body”.

On franceinfo Monday morning, the mayor of Grenoble has indeed pleaded for “women can swim bare-breasted like men, that one can wear bathing suits to protect oneself from the sun, that one can express in the swimming pool as in the street one’s politico-religious convictions”.

For the city councilor, it is also a question of enforcing the law “extremely modern” of 1905 on secularism. “It’s just a matter of equal access to public service”he pointed out to 20 minuteson May 3, adding that “this change in swimming pool regulations should rather be seen as social progress”. Eric Piolle does not conceal the “fight against political Islam” but it has to happen “where it’s needed”.

Are the burkini already allowed in swimming pools in other cities?

Two municipalities, at least, authorize the burkini in their swimming pools: Surgères (Charente-Maritime) or Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). In his argument, the mayor of Grenoble cites the example of Rennes, which modified the internal regulations of its swimming pools in 2018. An authorization which “for four years, according to him.

At the time, the sports councilor for the City of Rennes, Yvon Léziart, explained to West France that the wearing of the burkini (as well as shorts for men) had been authorized “provided that these jerseys respect the conditions of hygiene and safety”and whether they are “in a material, for example lycra, compatible with the practice of swimming” . He further assured that “the number of women swimming with a burkini [était] in any case very weak in Rennes”.

Moreover, it is only in the name of the health and safety conditions described in the internal regulations of municipal swimming pools, and not in the name of secularism, that town halls can ban the burkini, recalls the former rapporteur of the Observatory of secularism, Nicolas Cadène, at franceinfo. Because the principle of neutrality only applies to public service agents and not to users.

Is unanimity acquired by the Grenoble city council?

Before swimmers wear burkini or monokini in Grenoble’s municipal swimming pools, the municipal council must vote, by majority, to modify the internal regulations. But division reigns.

The former mayor of the Isère city, Alain Carignon, now in the municipal opposition, accuses his successor of wanting “isolate”the city. Eric Piolle wants “promote communitarianism for electoral reasons” he lambasted at the microphone of RTL, Monday morning.

The elected officials of insubordinate France (LFI) could also vote against the measure defended by the mayor. The first assistant, Elisa Martin, expressed her doubts to the World (paid item): “Is the burkini a sign of freedom, of inclusion? The argument comes up against a fact: it is a tool of patriarchal oppression elsewhere in the world. It is a contradiction that cannot be unraveled .”

Has the state reacted to the Grenoble project?

In the event of a favorable vote by the municipal council, the State will oppose it. The prefect of Isère, Laurent Prevost, announced that he would seize the administrative court of Grenoble “by means of a secularism summary in order to obtain the suspension, in addition to the summary of cancellation”. This on the instructions of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

For Laurent Prevost, “this deliberation, whose manifest objective is to yield to communitarian demands with religious aims, seems to contravene the principle of secularism laid down by the law of 1905 as well as the provisions of the law of August 24, 2021 confirming respect for the principles of the Republic”“.

This threat to bring the case to administrative justice does not worry Eric Piolle, also targeted by attacks from the executive, including Jean-Michel Blanquer and Gérald Darmanin. “I can’t wait for the government to explain to us why, in a swimming pool, we should hide all our religious signs” he retorted, Monday morning.

What opposition does Eric Piolle encounter?

In early May, the president (LR) of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, accused Eric Piolle of “submission to Islamism” and threatened with “cut all subsidies to the city of Grenoble”if the authorization of the burkini was voted.

A position shared by at least 42 departmental advisers (out of a total of 58), including the president (LR) of the departmental council, Jean-Pierre Barbier, signatories on May 10 from a platform against the authorization of the burkini. They state in this text “refuse to tolerate intolerance”. According to them, the covering swimsuit is a sign “of oppression and inferiority of women” , “a tool in the service of an ideology (…) which, behind the simple question of clothing, aims to trivialize Islamist precepts.”

On the left too, the measure gets stuck. The president of the metropolis, Christophe Ferrari (various left), is worried about the consequences of a possible adoption: “Tomorrow, we will undoubtedly be confronted, in the swimming pools of the agglomeration, with demonstrations asking us to do the same thing as Eric Piolle. The mayor of Grenoble cannot not listen to us.” Moreover, an appeal was signed on May 11 by 38 mayors and 21 metropolitan councilors inviting Eric Piolle to “withdraw its deliberation” in the name of preserving the area of ​​freedom, equality and fraternity.

How did the burkini defenders activate?

The Citizen Alliance association, which presents itself as a “Syndicate of citizens committed against all injustices in the city and for the democratization of public services”, published a support column on May 11 in the blogs section of Mediapart. Titled “In May, wear what you like!”, it is signed by 113 personalities including the feminist activist Caroline De Haas, the historian Mathilde Larrère, or the ecologist elected to the Council of Paris, Alice Coffin.

For the signatories, “Muslim women have their place in the swimming pool”than other citizens and “no one should be stigmatized even in the pools because of their choice of jersey”.

Since 2019, the Alliance Citoyenne association has already organized several operations in Grenoble swimming pools in favor of the wearing of the burkini. In the summer of 2021, the city of Grenoble denounced “deplorable provocations” . Eric Piolle wrote to the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, to ask the State to take a position on the outfits authorized or not at the swimming pool. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had accused the association of doing “pressure on public authorities to promote rules compatible with Sharia”,stated at the time The Parisian.


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