In this comic opera story (because it truly deserves that definition!), Christian Estrosi must be portrayed as a modern Hamlet, paraphrasing Shakespeare’s famous expression as “To do or not to do…”?
“As long as I am the mayor of Nice, the En-Nour Muslim cultural and worship center will not open!” he claims. Yet, in 2008, during the municipal election campaign, he had promised the construction of a Grand Mosque.
Since then, as they say, a lot of water has flowed under the bridges, and the Mayor of Nice is struggling to remain true to his favorite slogan: “I say what I do, I do what I say,” because when you say one thing and its opposite, you inevitably become a prisoner of your own contradiction.
We understand the difficulties of the Mayor of Nice, forced to juggle between an extremist electorate with fascist tendencies and a fairly large number of Niçois citizens (and mostly French), estimated at 40/50 thousand, who also vote.
But, “at a certain point,” as a certain international rugby player might say, a firm and above all definitive position will have to be reached. Because, if you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, you must especially avoid breaking eggs without making the slightest omelet!
The little story of the place of worship and the cultural center in the Var plain could maybe be explained like this…
On one side is the En-Nour association, standing firm on its lease of a privately owned space and its authorization to carry out refurbishment work. On the other is the mayor, who invokes the use of the property for public utility (a daycare center for the future residents of a neighborhood undergoing renovation).
In the middle, there are attempts at compromise where everyone plays their game, presenting things from their perspective and, unfortunately, muddying the waters in search of the famous joker that would win the game.
In our previous article, we denounced the attempt to manipulate the facts by opposing the place of worship to a daycare, whereas both have full legitimacy and no reason to be subject to arbitration.
In this tug-of-war, we welcomed a possible compromise, contacts, and direct negotiations between the City Hall and the En-Nour association before last Friday’s City Council deliberated on the DUP (Declaration of Public Utility) request to be submitted to the Prefecture for the disputed premises on Rue Pontremoli.
The City Hall’s press release encouraged this belief: “The deliberation that will be presented to tomorrow’s City Council, concerning the Declaration of Public Utility, will take into account these negotiations and a potential amicable acquisition.”
In response to this statement, the En-Nour association stated that “the suspension of the DUP request would lead to the suspension of ongoing work.”
However, the next day, the deliberation that should have been suspended or amended from this perspective explicitly included, in addition to the (uncontested) principle of creating an early childhood facility, a request for the prefect to initiate the joint public utility and parcel investigations for a decree in favor of the city of Nice. “This decision is made on a precautionary basis,” said the mayor of Nice to justify it.
As a “declaration of peace” before opening a negotiation, frankly, we’ve seen better. Negotiating with a gun on the table is not exactly ideal!
As a result, the En-Nour association issued the following statement:
“The socio-cultural and worship association of Nice La Plaine and its support committee, proponents of the En-Nour center project, learned with astonishment of the City Council of Nice’s approval, during its session on October 11, 2013, of the deliberation imposing expropriation via DUP of the said center in favor of a daycare.
Indeed, the association had been received the day before by the mayor who at the end of the meeting solemnly proposed, in exchange for stopping the work, to defer the DUP, and he affirmed that in the very near future, a building of the same capacity and within the same perimeter would be proposed.
This proposal was accepted by the extraordinary general assembly that evening and communicated to the mayor’s office and the local press.
However, the expropriation deliberation definitively adopted yesterday in the city council unilaterally and abusively breaks the consensus proposed by the mayor himself.
Consequently, the association, considering itself deceived, decided to resume the center’s work on Monday morning.
The association reaffirms the legal, but also social legitimacy of its future center in the Var plain. The center, which will finally meet the needs of Muslim citizens, will perfectly and complementarily fit into the urban development vision of this part of the city.
In the coming days, the association will seek an audience with the Prefect of Alpes Maritimes to express their concerns about the climate thus established after the vote on this deliberation.
The association will ask the Prefect to refuse the opening of the preliminary investigation to the DUP. This procedure is merely a maneuver to prevent Muslim Niçois from establishing a place of worship worthy of the 5th largest city in France.”
Therefore, it’s back to the center for a tussle whose interest is really in question.
The beneficiary, however, is known, and his name is Brignoles!
