On November 16, the Council of State, the highest French administrative court, banned the presence of the nativity scene in Beaucaire (Gard). And more generally within public authorities, in the name of secularism.
On Monday, the mayor of Beaucaire, Julien Sanchez (RN), nevertheless inaugurated a nativity scene again in the hall of the town hall… without the characters of the nativity. “This exhibition with more than 300 figurines, typically Provençal, is a living testimony to our traditions, our identity”, specifies the vice-president of the national gathering.
The mayor of Beaucaire evokes “the Ocean Santons”
Willingly provocative, the mayor alluded during the evening to theocean viking. On November 11, the boat had received authorization to dock in Toulon, with 250 migrants on board rescued at sea by the SOS Méditerranée association. Julien Sanchez spoke of “the current presence on the Rhône of the Ocean Santons (including Marie, Joseph, the Three Kings and an unborn child on board), a boat in difficulty which asked to dock in the nearest port (Beaucaire). The CCAS must decide in the next few days on the advisability of its reception in order to allow childbirth in good conditions in our crèche. »
In recent years, the nativity scenes exhibited in town halls, in Beaucaire, but also Béziers, have regularly been attacked before the administrative court by the prefects of Gard and Hérault.