In Biarritz, rue de la Dégresse has become rue de l’Agrecress

LA Rue de la Negresse is no longer. The Biarritz municipal council met this Monday at 5 p.m. on Monday, on the eve of the end of the three -month period that the Bordeaux administrative court of appeal had given it to rename the street. Three items were on the agenda: the approval of the council, the execution of the court’s decision and the new denomination, the rue de l’Agregress.

Elected officials debated before proceeding with the vote, a secret bulletin, as claimed by a third of the municipal council, on the execution of the court’s decision. A ballot whose value was rather symbolic, as recalled by the elected representative Nathalie wordsch: “It is not possible to vote against, since it is a court decision and that it imposes itself on us. We are in a state of law. Reluctantly, the elected officials decided to 25 votes to, six votes against and two abstentions.

“A vast insult”

“It is a matter that deeply affects our city, our history and our cohesion,” said Mayor Maider Arosteguy, in the preamble. It is the latest episode to date from a long legal and ideological battle. At the origin of legal action: Memoirs and Shares, a Bordeaux association which promotes a work of memory around the inheritances of colonization and slavery. For its members, the name of the negress is “a vast insult” and a term which participates “in the trivialization of a racist archetype”. The case has aroused particularly hostile reactions towards them, ranging from cyberbully to death threats.

On February 6, 2025, the Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal gave reason to the association. The decision was aimed at the repeal of two deliberations of the Biarritz municipal council, one of 1861, the other of 1986. The first giving suppose its name to the district, the second to the street, on the grounds that “whatever the supposed origin of this name, it evokes in devaluing terms the racial origin of a woman, likely to undermine the dignity of the human person”.

The city of Biarritz was not long in counterattack, by fileing an appeal in material concerning the deliberation of 1861. M^e Cambot, lawyer for the municipality, advised that it evoked the district but did not name it, which, according to him, made it impossible to execute the court injunction.

“Among all the black women who have marked the history of France, the city of Biarritz has found no worthy of being honored by this street”

The outcome had taken place on April 17: once again, justice was right to memories and sharing. The news had not delighted the mayor, who declared to take “the decision of the administrative court of Appeal of Bordeaux which, unlike the conclusions of the public rapporteur, has just rejected his request “.

“No sense”

To determine what name to give to the street, the city of Biarritz launched a citizen consultation. Neither the name Gascon (Lana Gresa) nor the Basque name (Butzinlurra) had the favor of the voting of the biarrots. It is therefore the joy that prevails, with 51.42 % of the votes.

During the vote on deliberation giving its new name to the street, three elected opposition elected officials abstained. “As much Lana Gresa made sense, as much the joy, apart from a phonetic resemblance, has none,” said one of them.

For his part, Memoirs and Shares reacted: “Despite the irresponsibility of the mayor of Biarritz, who oriented the citizen consultation towards the appellation ” the joy ”, as a umpteenth nose to the judicial authority which it will have ceased to manhandle, it must be rejoiced that a atrocious word, created for one of the worst crimes against the humanity of our history. “The association nevertheless regrets” that among all the black women who have marked the history of France, the city of Biarritz found no worthy of being honored by this street “.

“A username”

In practice, the name of the negress should remain in the vocabulary of the biarrots. “It is a username, not an administrative qualification,” hammered the mayor of Biarritz. No justice decision obliges us to change the traffic signs that mention the negress. »The toll and the highway exit, properties of Vinci, also retain this name. Only the street is tested. The new denomination will come into force on June 16, in order to give the residents and companies in the street time to regularize their administrative situation.

The legal proceedings are not over. The city of Biarritz seized the Council of State to try to break the decision of the administrative court of appeal.