He wants to prevent the burkini from finding its way into his city’s swimming pools. After Éric Piolle’s mayoralty in Grenoble gave the green light to allow Islamic swimming costumes in public pools, some politicians are already taking the initiative to prevent the phenomenon from spreading. This also applies to the mayor of Marignane, Éric Le Dissès. On Friday May 20, he passed a municipal council resolution for a burkini ban in the municipal swimming pools of the municipality in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône. In a statement reported by La Provence on Saturday May 21, the mayor of Marignane recalled that the ban also applied to “Bermudas, shorts and the like”: “Only swimming costumes are allowed”, he reminded.
In the same letter, Eric Le Dissès called on the other mayors of France “not to give in to the pressure of pro-burkini associations”, whom he accused of wanting to impose “the extreme Islamisation of France, which many French Muslims do not approve of”.
He did not hesitate to criticise the mayor of Grenoble, Éric Piolle, who is responsible for allowing the burkinis in the municipality in the Hérault department. The mayor of Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV) was described by Éric Le Dissès as an “apostle of Islamic law”, as reported by La Provence. An apostle who “deliberately forgets that swimming pool regulations obey hygiene rules and specific safety standards that guarantee public health”.
On the same day, Friday May 20, the mayor of Fréjus, David Rachline, announced his intention to amend the relevant ordinances of the municipal swimming pools to “explicitly ban the burkini”. In his opinion, Eric Piolle’s decision would be an “aberration” that would violate “our basic republican principle of secularity”.