Repeated violations of fundamental freedoms, flouting of asylum rights, unaccompanied minors not being cared for— these are issues that characterize the Alpes-Maritimes as a zone where the disregard for law is structurally organized by the national and local authorities themselves. At the origin of the decrees condemning the local governments, civic action proves to be the last line of defense for upholding the law.
Much has been said about areas of lawlessness and the so-called lost territories of the Republic, deliberately stigmatizing disadvantaged neighborhoods and their residents.
However, there is a true area of lawlessness that is not discussed as such, a secluded territory surrendered to local populism, where even State representatives seem to have lost all sense of proportion: the Alpes-Maritimes.
Indeed, Nice and, more broadly, the Alpes-Maritimes constitute a zone where the disregard for law is structurally organized by the national and local authorities themselves.
Without making a laundry list, let us focus on three of the most significant examples: the obstruction to freedom of worship, illegal and discriminatory municipal decrees, the neglect of unaccompanied minors, and the violation of human rights at the Italian border.
When put together and viewed through a broad lens, it is evident that these violations of fundamental freedoms and rights have been systematically implemented over several years by the authorities themselves: town halls, the Departmental Council, the Prefecture, the Public Prosecutor, etc.
The Alpes-Maritimes is thus a place of discrimination, stigmatization, and denial of law by local authorities and the State, as noted by the Council of State, administrative tribunals, or associative observers.
At the source of these past or future condemnations, we find citizens organized into associations, who have had to initiate legal procedures against institutions and local governments to ensure respect for fundamental freedoms and uphold the law.
In the Alpes-Maritimes more than anywhere else, civic action turns out to be the last bastion against the unfortunate abuses committed by the authorities themselves.
By David Nakache, Tous Citoyens
