The Paris administrative court suspended on Friday June 19 the decision of the police prefect to ban a La France insoumise concert planned on the Place de la République on the occasion of the Fête de la Musique.
“The court considered that the risks of disturbances to public order invoked by the decree to justify the ban were not sufficiently justified by the prefect, noting that none of the elements produced made it possible to support them”, indicated in a press release the administrative court, seized for summary proceedings, an emergency procedure.
The disputed decree, taken on Wednesday evening by the prefecture, noted in particular that the “event should notably welcome the Adama Committee and its founder Assa Traoré, the rappers Médine and Soso Maness”.
Regarding the latter, the ban was justified by the fact that he had sang “Everyone hates the police” during Humanity Day in 2021.
Last resort decision
“The Paris police headquarters is in its role, it notes risks of disturbance to public order due to guests who have made offensive comments in the past, particularly against the police,” said government spokesperson Maud Bregeon on Thursday morning.
But, decided the Paris administrative court, if the police prefect relied on the announced presence of these personalities to characterize the risk of “attracting a public hostile to the police and giving rise to the dissemination of remarks calling for hatred, discrimination or violence”, “the banning of a meeting can only be decided as a last resort”.
The magistrates “then noted that the organizers of this demonstration had not planned either the participation of Assa Traoré, nor that of the rappers Médine and Soso Maness”.
The judge in summary proceedings “also noted that the documents placed in the file did not make it possible to justify the existence of risks of material disturbance to public order or the sufficiently certain and imminent commission of criminal offenses”, continues the press release.
