Poitiers Administrative Court Suspends Angoulême’s Controversial Anti-Marginal Decree

The interim judge of the Poitiers administrative court has decided to suspend the decree of the city of Angoulême which prohibits lying down, sitting and even standing in certain places in the center when these positions hinder “pedestrian circulation”.

The decision of the town hall of Angoulême had caused a lot of talk. It is now suspended by the administrative justice. This Monday, August 7, the administrative court of Poitiers decided to suspend the provisions of the “anti-marginal” decree taken by the Charente municipality. “The administrative court of Poitiers has just suspended several prohibitions which had been imposed by the anti-precarious decree of the mayor of Angoulême”, writes the lawyer Lionel Crusoé, who represented the League of Human Rights (LDH), on X (Twitter). “On the appeal of the League of Human Rights, the ban on remaining seated or lying on the public domain of the municipality of Angoulême is suspended by the judge in chambers”, says lawyer Marion Ogier on X. The text notably prohibited lying down or sitting, or even standing, in the city center, under certain conditions.

On July 11, the security deputy of the city of Angoulême, Jean-Philippe Pousset, had signed a municipal decree to punish “the abusive occupation of public spaces” in the city center by “the marginalized”, according to the words of the chosen one. It has therefore become prohibited to lie down or sit in public space within a wide perimeter when this position constitutes “an obstacle to the circulation of pedestrians and to access to buildings bordering public roads”. A fine of 35 euros is then provided for non-compliance with this new decree. The “standing station” is also regulated, and becomes prohibited “when it clearly hinders the movement of people, the convenience of passage, safety in public roads and spaces”.

An “attack on the freedom to come and go”

In detail, the summary judge of the administrative court of Poitiers considers in the first place that the perimeter of the decree is too wide, as reported the free Charente. “If it emerges from the documents in the file, and in particular from the content of the numerous handbooks produced, that the disturbances to peace and good public order are established on Place du Champ-de-Mars, Place Saint-Martial, Rue de l ‘Saint-Martial church, rue Goscinny, rue Louis Barthou, rue Hergé, place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville, place Victor-Hugo, place de la Madeleine, square Guelendjik, rue Georges-Gauthier, place Delivertoux, rue Fernand- Laporte, boulevard Thiers”, they are not established in the other places covered by the decree. The judge also considers its formulation “insufficiently precise”, which “disproportionately affects the freedom to come and go and the freedom of assembly with regard to the objective of safeguarding public order pursued”.

The League for Human Rights had announced that it was filing an appeal for annulment accompanied by an interim suspension against the decree one week after its publication. The LDH had thus denounced, during a hearing on August 1, “an attack on the freedom to come and go, to occupy the public domain as one wishes, all the more so in the case of people [dont] the makeshift home is the street, ”said his counsel, Me Marion Ogier. Because for the applicants, it is indeed “the marginalized” who are targeted by the text. “Nocturnal noise, public drunkenness, aggressive begging… all these offenses are already provided for in the Penal Code. And in the documents in the file, we are systematically told about security, but only the prefect is competent” in the matter, pointed out the lawyer, for whom the text has “just the purpose of getting rid of a population that society judges inconvenient”.

The signatory of the text then defended himself and 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”, affirmed Jean-Philippe Pousset. The elected official pointed to “nearly 400 handrails” filed with the municipal police for three years and asserted the support of traders. The city’s lawyer, Me Alexandra Aderno, insisted on the “anxiogenic climate” and “the exponential increase in unrest” in the city center.

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 the courts as in Saint-Etienne or Bayonne in recent years.

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