The urgent applications judge “partially suspended the execution” of a decree issued last month by the LR town hall of Angoulême limiting the occupation of public space and targeting “the marginalized” according to its detractors, indicated Monday the Administrative Court of Poitiers. 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”.
According to the magistrate, these prohibitions carry “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. The judge in chambers 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 municipal decree remains in force”, according to the town hall
The administrative court had been seized by the League of Human Rights (LDH), residents and associations fighting against poor housing. The LDH “welcomes” in a press release “the decision of the administrative court of Poitiers to suspend this decree which has (…) no other objective than that of banishing people in very precarious situations from the city center , their only place of social life by default, on the pretext of supposedly disturbing public order”.
The town hall of Angoulême emphasizes that even if “part of the provisions are suspended”, “the municipal decree remains in force”, in particular the prohibition of “any abusive and prolonged occupation of streets and other public spaces (. ..) when it is likely to undermine public peace and good order”.
She is therefore delighted that this decision “confirms the right of local elected officials to work to find a peaceful public space by allowing action against disturbances to public order”. 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.
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