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".
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