The mayor of Grenoble responded, Monday, May 16 on France Inter, to the controversy over the burkini using various examples and clearing himself of all criticism. For him, they would be due to the “zemmourisation of public space”.
On France Inter, the mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle tried to defend the authorization of the burkini in municipal swimming pools by explaining that the town hall does not “make this regulation to authorize the burkini, [mais pour] kidnapped[er] prohibitions that are recent and desired[er] that everyone can bathe as they wish while respecting hygiene. He also added that he was for “that women can come topless like men, there is no reason to transform the woman into a sexual object. »
The mayor also declared that, even if he “understands the emotion that this can arouse”, for him this is a non-issue because “in practice, fundamentalist Islamists do not go to the swimming pool at all. In her words, “oppressing women in the name of being under the influence of their husband or their religious leader has long been done to deny women the right to vote. Let women be free and fights for emancipation take place everywhere. »
He affirmed that “what is an inequality is to impose clothing on women”, attempting a most fallacious comparison with volleyball players in scanty outfits: “We do not force women to undress for the pleasure of neither does sports. We must stop his injunctions to dress or undress. Another argument from Éric Piolle: “People do not want to expose their bodies because they have scars, gender change processes, it does not concern public service, I am a universalist. There is no secularism at the swimming pool, as in the street […] There is no clothing of freedom, women dress as they want. »
The mayor then defended his record: “We arrived with a heat wave plan with discrimination introduced in Grenoble in 2012. There was a feminist fight because we refuse the sexualization of women’s bodies by banning advertising in 2014. We have to come back to the simplicity of the texts. »
He also tried to cite other cities where the burkini is authorized: “Lots of swimming pools where burkinis are not prohibited. In Rennes, this was done in 2018 with the support of three LREM deputies and there is no problem. The excitement is linked to the zemmourisation of the public debate. »
“To ban religious symbols in public space is to change the law of 1905”
Piolle however acknowledged that, in general, “in the swimming pools of the big cities, it is very tense”, but to hear him, it would be due to the heat: “The hotter it is, the more people need to access. We often have fights, people fighting in the queue, it’s a space that is under tension, like at Pôle Emploi. »
The ecologist said he was “deeply universalist” and addressed other politicians: “I tell others that banning religious symbols in public space is changing the 1905 law. ‘History and I invite everyone to read this law again. »
To defend himself from any communitarianism, he counted on the zemmourisation of the public debate, once again: “The huge fracture is with Zemmour, Le Pen, the drift of the LRs that we saw in the primaries and the macronie with Darmanin or Blanquer who said that it was not republican to come to school in a crop-top. Let’s educate Jean-Michel Blanquer’s gaze instead if he can’t manage to look away from the navel of the girls. »
And the NUPES? “I advocated this humanist arc around the environmental project and Mélenchon had the wisdom to put more chairs around the table. I believe that everything is unstable and this gives rise to hope. It is not impossible that there is a unique configuration to date. We are constantly living in new times. »