A town in eastern France has been ordered to remove a statue of the Virgin Mary to comply with secular rules banning religious symbols in public.
An administrative court ordered the commune of Publier, in the Haute-Savoie region to take down the offending statue which overlooks Lake Geneva and has been in place in a public park since 2011.
The town has three months to comply with the ruling on pain of receiving a fine of €100 (£85) per day, the November 24 judgement stipulates.
Gaston Lacroix, the town’s mayor has pledged to find a new home for the religious icon “on private land”.
The statue of the mother of Jesus has been the focus of controversy since it was installed in 2011 without any prior debate in the town council, in particular because municipal funding was used.
In an attempt to resolve the issue, the statue was then sold to a religious cultural association. But the parcel of land it stood was still owned by the municipality, meaning it remained on public property and therefore continued to breach French rules regarding religious symbols.
One of the world’s most secular countries, France strongly separates religion and public life.
In 2010, France became the first country in Europe to ban the full Muslim veil in public spaces.
A string of southern French beach towns near Nice banned the burkini full body swimsuit over the summer, but the bans by municipal decree were struck down by the country’s highest constitutional court.
In a decision hailed by human rights groups, the court found that the bans in around 30 seaside towns were a “serious and manifestly illegal violation of fundamental freedoms” and that the swimsuits did not constitute a clear threat to public order.
In a separate ruling last month, France’s State Council ruled that French town halls could bedeck their entrance halls with nativity scenes after a two-year battle over the issue.
But it said the installations would be permitted only if they serve “cultural, artistic or festive” purposes, and show no preference for a religion.
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