Did the rejection of this Senate article open the door to wearing the burkini in swimming pools as the Citizen Alliance association says, which increased the number of women in burkini in Grenoble swimming pools in 2019? The situation is more nuanced but restores, in any event, the responsibility for the internal regulations of swimming pools only to the municipalities.
And this is what Éric Piolle regrets in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, from whom he asks for clarification: “The Council of State and the Defender of Rights, as well as international organizations such as the United Nations High Commission for human rights, confirm the orientation taken by a large number of municipalities in France, including Grenoble, with regard to the internal regulations of public facilities. Only swimwear that violates the rules of hygiene, health and safety is prohibited. These rules cannot take into account any other consideration. Today, in Grenoble as elsewhere, users express the inadequacy of internal regulations with their needs, expectations and constraints in terms of health, modesty, convictions or even allergies ”.
A position that the Defender of Rights had recalled in 2018. It is up, he wrote, to an establishment called into question “to provide proof that these risks exist materially and objectively, if necessary by producing a scientific and objective study”.
However, the only reference mentions, in particular, and only, “the use of a swimsuit exclusively reserved for this purpose and the wearing of a swimming cap”. Thus, continues Éric Piolle, “in Grenoble as elsewhere, today we do not have any more recent study that would be valid for refusing the requests made to us. In the name of equality between the territories, and a fortiori when it comes to public freedoms, it is up to the State to list exhaustively, then to disseminate all the recommendations to the municipalities. As for swimwear, it is therefore a question of setting all the prohibition criteria according to their size, their material and the contact surface with the skin or, failing that, determining the particle thresholds. harmful effects that these outfits can fix and which would not be acceptable from a health point of view. It is then up to the municipalities to produce internal regulations that respect public health and fundamental freedoms ”.
And the mayor of Grenoble to make himself more solemn: “Mr. Prime Minister, the Republic must remain one and indivisible. Equality, health and public freedoms must be the same from Lille to Ajaccio and from Brest to Strasbourg. Also, we ask you to transmit to the municipalities of France the study (s) in question. The City of Grenoble will always comply with health and safety requirements ”.
Member of the committee which had looked into the subject in the National Assembly, the Grenoble deputy Émilie Chalas had also reacted: “In truth, the management of swimming pool regulations comes under the strict competence of the mayor through his power to police. It is up to him (Éric Piolle, Editor’s note) to assume his political convictions and to authorize, or not, the wearing of clothes in the swimming pools ”.
https://www.archyworldys.com/the-mayor-of-grenoble-eric-piolle-challenges-jean-castex/