President of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region withdraws subsidies to Grenoble following the authorisation of the burkini in public swimming pools - The President of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez has announced that the region is to withdraw its subsidies to the city council of Grenoble, after the mayor adopted on Monday evening the authorisation to wear a burkini in public swimming pools in the city. On Monday evening, Grenoble city council approved, with a narrow majority, the authorization to wear the burkini in the city's swimming pools, shortly after Wauquiez announced that the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region was "immediately ceasing all subsidies” justifying his action by saying that “by authorizing the wearing of the burkini in public swimming pools, the mayor Eric Piolle breaks from secularism and the values of our Republic". In a press release, shared by Le Dauphiné Libéré, Laurent Wauquiez maintains that the deliberation voted by the Grenoble city council "marks a worrying drift and a real step backwards" saying that "it promotes, a total rupture with all the values of the Republic, a sign of the submission of women, a symbol of political Islam. It is the sign of a pact with political Islam. We will not be complicit in this manoeuvre of submission," he said. Ecologist mayor Eric Piolle brushed aside opposition objections during the city council, citing a "feminist", "health" and "secularism" fight because nothing prohibits the wearing of religious clothing in public space, "including at the swimming pool".
France is set for one of its biggest strike days in years as around 800,000 people are expected to protest nationwide today, Thursday 18th September, ...
Read More
A 19-year-old woman has been jailed for complicity in attempted murder after last week’s knife attack at a horticultural high school in Antibes, Alpes...
Read More
A suspected arsonist has been arrested after six fires broke out within an hour in the village of Châteauneuf-Villevieille, near Nice, on Tuesday even...
Read More
A water leak has led police to discover a squat filled with drugs, weapons, and cash in Nice.
Read More
Around 100 far-right activists have staged an unauthorised demonstration in Nice waving French flags and singing La Marseillaise on the steps of the M...
Read More
