“To take into account a certain emotion resulting from the provocative nature of the title of the evening, a title likely to attribute to the members of the association feelings or intentions that are not their own, when this evening had no other aim than to initiate a debate on immigration in France, the association decided on its own initiative to cancel the evening,” the organizers wrote on social networks.
The court ruled in their favor late Friday afternoon, according to the decision consulted by AFP.
“The disturbance of public order resulting from an attack” on human dignity which would allow the mayor of Rouen to ban the evening “is not characterised in the circumstances”, wrote the interim relief judge in his order.
According to the judge, it has not been established, at this stage, that “the slogan Ausländer Raus which gave its title to the evening organized on June 28, 2024 by the association Union normande de France comes, even probably, from propaganda or songs broadcast during the National Socialist regime (Nazi, Editor’s note)”.
“Ausländer Raus” is a xenophobic slogan that went viral after being hijacked by young people who sang it to the techno tune of “L’Amour toujours” by DJ Gigi D’Agostino, sometimes accompanied by Nazi salutes as can be seen in some videos.
But, according to the administrative court, “the German authorities did not take criminal action against the use of these words sung by high school graduates”, in May 2024.
“The report made to the public prosecutor by the mayor of Rouen on June 21, 2024, is, eight days later, as of today, left unanswered,” the court further notes.
The mayor maintains his position
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol immediately announced his intention to appeal this decision to the Council of State. “I maintain that a call for xenophobia such as “Foreigners out” has no place in Rouen, nor anywhere in our Republic,” underlines the mayor of Rouen.
The Seine-Maritime prefect had banned all demonstrations in the area around the bar located on a pedestrian street in the city centre from 5pm on Friday to 4am on Saturday.
“Risks of disturbances to public order and clashes between antagonistic demonstrators on the public highway have been identified,” estimated the prefect, whose order is not affected by the decision of the administrative court.
Around 300 people demonstrated this Friday evening, outside the area covered by the prefectural ban, to oppose “the racist and anti-foreigner evening organized by the Le Mora bar,” noted an AFP correspondent.
