French mayor accused of Islamophobia after scrapping pork-free school dinners

The mayor of a far-right local authority in France has been branded both “anti-Muslim” and “anti-Jewish” for scrapping pork-free school meals.

Marlene Schiappa, the minister for sexual equality, lashed out at Julien Sanchez, the National Front mayor of Beaucaire, for abolishing the scheme on the first day of the new school term.

Sanchez’s predecessor was responsible for introducing the “substitution meals”, with the scrapping affecting some 150 mainly Muslim pupils out of 600 local students.

Announcing the policy change in December, Sanchez said the pork-free meals were “anti-Republican”.

However, Ms Schiappa told BFM TV the decision was “a typical example of someone brandishing secularism as an anti-Muslim political weapon, or anti-Jewish for that matter”.

Laure Cordelet, the opposition leader in Beaucaire, branded the move “an attack on the rights of children” which “stigmatises the Maghreb (north African) community and can in no way be justified in the name of secularism”.

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This is not the first time the scrapping of pork-free meals from the school menu has caused controversy.

In 2015 Republican mayor Gilles Platret scrapped the pork substitute menu in Chalon-sur-Saone’s school canteens.

However, the decision was blocked in August 2017 by Dijon’s administrative court, who said it went against the “interests of the children”.