Fearing that it was discriminating against Jews and Muslims, the Paris police prefecture recently blocked food distributions to the homeless by the rightwing organisation SDF (Solidarité des Français).
Last week, however, the judge at the city’s administrative tribunal ruled that there was no evidence the SDF had refused to serve Jews and Muslims, and hence could not be accused of discriminating against them, ordering the prefecture to pay the SFD group €1,000 (£670) in costs.
At the center of the dispute was the group’s serving of ‘soupe au cochon’, pork stew, which Jews and Muslims do not eat for religious reasons.
Though Fabienne Keller, the mayor of Strasbourg, has gone on record as saying that ‘Schemes with racial subtexts must be denounced’, the rightwing soup kitchens insist that they only serve traditional Gallic fare to ‘our own’.
‘There are no legal grounds allowing anyone to ban pork stew,’ thundered Roger Bonnivard, the SDF’s president, in a statement. And now that the Paris judge has established that the dish cannot be deemed racist, it is back on the menu in the rightwing group’s soup kitchens for homeless people.
Sources:
L’Express
www.lexpress.fr
The Guardian
www.guardian.co.uk