At Collège Émile Combes in Bordeaux, a halal beef sauté was offered on the canteen menu on Monday. A religious component that is causing great concern among some of the students’ parents. The movement Parents vigilants de la Gironde, founded by Reconquête! in 2022, warns against the politicisation of children on the menu.

Émile Combes (1835-1921), a French politician, pursued a very anti-clerical policy that led to the 1905 law on the separation of church and state and the introduction of secularism in educational institutions. [NDLR]

Cheese rolls, halal beef skillet, cauliflower, cheese and fruit. On the website Pronote, Collège Émile Combes in Bordeaux does not display an alternative to the main dish served in the canteen on Monday. “What is shocking is that the principle of secularism is being trampled on and that this is being accepted,” outraged Virginie Tournay, spokesperson for Parents vigilants in the Gironde region. The movement, launched by Reconquête! in September 2022, was alerted by the father of one of the middle school students, who was as concerned as he was outraged. “It’s disturbing because we are giving in to a community pressure that is targeting our children because they are malleable. They are taught a polarised way of living and seeing society, whereas the Collège should be precisely a bulwark against the problems of adults,” Virginie Tournay pointed out. […]

The Département de Gironde rejects this accusation. The choice of menus is at the discretion of the schools, which are also “allowed to offer halal meat without having to indicate this”.