Justice once again validates the end of state subsidies

The administrative court of Lille for the second time, on Monday July 22, validated in summary proceedings the termination of the State contract with the Averroès high school in Lille, the main Muslim high school in France, confirming the end of public subsidies a few weeks before the start of the school year.

The court found that there was no “no reason to maintain the association contract linking the Averroès high school to the State until the decision to terminate this contract, taken by the prefect of the North, is examined by the trial judges.”

Contacted by AFP, the school’s lawyer could not be reached immediately.

The State had terminated its contract with this high school, founded in 2003, in December 2023, arguing that “serious breaches of the fundamental principles of the Republic”The high school said it feared for its survival following this decision, effective from 1^er September 2024.

A first decision in February

In February, the administrative court, which had already been seized in summary proceedings, confirmed the prefecture’s decision, finding that the establishment had failed to meet its obligations on two occasions.

On the one hand, by opposing without sufficient reason an unannounced inspection of the Documentation and Information Centre (CDI) and, on the other hand, by citing as a source for courses in Muslim ethics a collection of religious texts including commentaries which advocate the death penalty in the event of apostasy and the segregation of the sexes.

The new interim relief application detailed the corrective measures taken by the establishment and pointed out the “manifestly disproportionate consequences” of the cessation of subsidies in the face “to the insubstantial grievances retained by the administration”.

The high school’s lawyer had assured during the hearing that the termination of the contract was synonymous with ” slow death “ of the establishment, which had to double tuition fees for high school students and fears that many teachers will leave.

Three “failures” contested

The administrative court ruled on Monday that “the two breaches noted in February, even if they had given rise to corrective measures, still prevented the provisional resumption of the association contract, given the nature of these breaches”.

The court also notes a third failure, “the irregular creation, by the director of the establishment at the time, of a file listing certain personal data of agents of the national education services who intervened during a previous inspection”which is “of such a nature as to justify the refusal to provisionally maintain the contract pending judgment on the merits”.