Crosses affixed to the walls of public buildings in the State of Bavaria will be allowed to remain in place: this is what the Federal Administrative Court of Germany decided on 19 December, seized by a secular association on this subject. This decision reflects the German interpretation of the principle of secularism, according to an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung spotted by Courrier international: public authorities are not required to "completely renounce religious symbols, by virtue of an intransigent secularism, but rather to be open to the diversity of ideological and religious beliefs".
The crucifixes in question did not arrive on the walls of official buildings in Bavaria by chance: since 2018 they have been an obligation decreed by the Bavarian government. This decision by Marküs Soder, the minister-president of Bavaria, a prominent member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), was interpreted as a clear political message sent to the Catholic electorate, in a context of the rise of the far right and therefore of competition on the identity terrain with the AfD. Since 2018, however, the AfD has gained 4 points more in the regional election in October 2023: 14.6%, compared to 10.2% in 2018. But for the time being, this has not weakened the CSU, which remains well ahead with around 37% and has therefore continued to govern Bavaria since 1957.
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The cross, a "passive emblem"
However, in 2018, Markus Söder's initiative with his crucifixes made Angela Merkel's coalition in power at the time, of which the CSU is a part, uncomfortable. The Catholic Church itself had distanced itself, fearing an instrumentalization of the faith for political ends. However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had already ruled in a previous ruling in 2011 that the presence of crosses in Bavarian schools did not infringe fundamental rights.
This time, it is in domestic law that this assessment is confirmed: the German justice considers that the cross is an "essentially passive emblem, without the effect of proselytism or indoctrination" and that displaying it on a wall is not a gesture of exclusion with regard to believers of other religions. The Union of Free Thought (Bund für Geistesfreiheit), the German association that brought the case to court, has announced that it will appeal to the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
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This decision of first instance highlights the gap between the German conception of secularism and that which has prevailed in France since the law of 1905. The National Federation of Free Thought, which emerged from a movement born in 1890 and which included in its ranks the main actors of the separation of church and state (Ferdinand Buisson, Aristide Briand), regularly sues municipalities that host religious symbols in public spaces.
The latest victory for these supporters of an intransigent secularism is a ruling forcing the city of Les Sables-d'Olonne to move a statue of Saint Michael erected in front of a church, but in a municipal square. The statue will eventually be moved from... a few meters, to comply with the law.