The candles lit in the forecourt of Alfortville town hall for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, have long since gone out.
This is not the case of the controversy initiated more than a month ago by an elected communist during a debate on secularism between several members of the municipal council.
It bounces back and is revived today by a new pass of arms between elected officials.
The premiere takes place on December 14.
Michel Ouazana, deputy mayor, but also president of the Israelite cultural association of Alfortville (ACIA), is invited to enlighten his audience on this celebration of Hanouka in front of and in the town hall of Alfortville, a tradition well anchored here for a Fifteen years.
For the 16th year @Alfortville_94 joins the celebration of #Hanouka - a holiday for Jews symbol of hope and renewal - by organizing as tradition dictates in a public place, and in all the cities of France, the lighting candles for this festival of lights pic.twitter.com/ozHmes56Fj
— Luc Carvounas (@luccarvounas) December 2, 2021
"It didn't speak French"
This “festive and joyful event has a purely secular character, he specifies, sweeping away any proselytizing objective.
It is not a religious holiday, it commemorates a victory and a return from exile.
If Hanouka can have a religious character, it is, he points out, "only within the confines of a synagogue".
He adds that the funds raised for these festivities were committed by “the Jewish community of Alfortville exclusively”.
In the aftermath, Dominique Lauret, then still municipal councilor (PCF) delegate in charge of unfit housing, reacts to these explanations in a way that will surprise both the majority and the opposition.
“I agree on the fact that religious festivals can take place in the public space”, introduces the elected member of the communist group, who then slides on a more controversial slope.
The mayor (PS) "very strongly condemns" these remarks
She describes the surprise of some passers-by, "shocked" according to her to see "full of trucks with Orthodox who shouted sermons outside".
Guests who “Arrived with their outfits and preached on the side of the town hall, thoroughly, and they did not speak French”, she underlines, twice, before Luc Carvounas, the mayor (PS) d'Alfortville, does not cut his microphone.
“I think we understood your expression, which I strongly condemn.
It is a scandal !
he thunders.
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Dominique Lauret is no longer part of the communist group and the municipal majority.
Now the only elected non-registered member, the municipal councilor lost her delegation a few days after her controversial exit.
A “collective” decision, underlines Luc Carvounas, which was taken after having sought the opinion of “all the sensitivities of the majority.
I did things the right way.
It is not a man who decides alone.
»
After the CM of 14/12 last and the remarks that I condemned from Dominique Lauret, I consulted the parties of the majority.
All were unanimous for his exclusion.
Madame Lauret since yesterday Monday is no longer a member of the majority and I have taken an order of withdrawal from delegation
— Luc Carvounas (@luccarvounas) December 21, 2021
The two letters of apology sent by Dominique Lauret to the elected members of the municipal council were therefore without effect.
In these letters, "she says that her words have exceeded her thoughts, that she is in a complicated personal situation and that she regrets", summarizes Jonathan Rosenblum (LREM), elected from the opposition group "Alfortville, Place à l 'future', with Yaëlle Reynaud and Vincent Mulier, who also condemn the words used.
Opposition elected officials see their platform retouched
Several weeks have passed and tensions are rekindling today for an unpublished column in the last municipal magazine of Alfortville.
The text of the group “Alfortville at the heart” (LR and center), denouncing the “slippage” of Dominique Lauret, appears well.
Not that of the group “Alfortville, Place in the future”.
"This month's LREM forum is not published in view of the insulting remarks made against a municipal councilor, which may fall under a criminal qualification.
The Direction of publication of the Mag has therefore complied with the legal opinion it has received” is it indicated in place of this forum.
“It is a very virulent forum, judge Luc Carvounas.
I asked, as director of the publication, if it was publishable from a legal point of view.
The lawyers told me that it was criminal and that we could not publish it as it was, that my responsibility could be engaged.
I followed the lawyers' instructions.
»
The administrative court will decide
Considering the expression of his group censored, Jonathan Rosenblum does not understand what is being criticized for this platform which evokes, in particular, “the excess of a xenophobic speech” and “a series of nauseating remarks with anti-Semitic hints”.
"We sent this forum to several people and none of them found anything that would constitute defamation or insult," he says.
We do not mention the name of this elected, we just relate facts.
»
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A request will be filed shortly with the administrative court of Melun (Seine-et-Marne).
“We will make the law say,” announces Jonathan Rosenblum, who hopes to be able to count on case law in this area.
That this platform is rejected, it is according to him "Patrick Balkany methods", he believes.
In 2016, the former mayor of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) was convicted of censoring an opponent's platform.
