The urgent applications judge “partially suspended the execution” of a decree issued last month by the LR town hall of Angoulême (Charente), which notably prohibits standing still, the administrative court of Poitiers said on Monday. This decree limiting the occupation of public space targeted “the marginalized”, according to its detractors.
The decree published on July 11 prohibits in particular “seated or lying down when it constitutes an obstacle to the movement of pedestrians and access to buildings bordering public roads, as well as standing when it clearly hinders traffic. of people, ease of passage, safety in public roads and spaces”.
“Disproportionate interference with the freedom to come and go”
The magistrate considered that these prohibitions carried “a disproportionate attack on the freedom to come and go and on the freedom of assembly with regard to the objective of safeguarding public order pursued”, specifies the court in a press release.
She also considers that “the measures enacted were not necessary” in two sectors, “including that of the SNCF station”, where “the disturbances to public peace and good order” have not been established. The decree may however be applied in other parts of the city, in particular the center, such as on the Place du Champ-de-Mars, Place Victor-Hugo, or even the Madeleine district.
Not an “anti-homeless” decree according to the town hall
The administrative court had been seized by the League for Human Rights (LDH), residents and associations fighting against poor housing. At the hearing last Tuesday, LDH lawyer Marion Ogier denounced “an attack on the freedom to come and go, to occupy the public domain as one wishes”, in order “to get rid of a population that society considers inconvenient”.
The deputy for prevention and public security of Angoulême, Jean-Philippe Pousset, had for his part assured that the text was not an “anti-begging” or “anti-homeless” decree. “It is only a tool to find a peaceful management of the public space”, which “concerns only 6% of the surface of the city”, he added, citing the “nearly 400 handrails” lodged with the municipal police for three years.
Similar orders in other cities
The Charente city had already experienced such controversy in 2014, when it had fenced public benches at Christmas.
In addition to Angoulême, similar decrees have already been taken by several cities in France, including La Rochelle in June, often challenged by justice as in Saint-Étienne or Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) in recent years.