With dry bread and water. The Rhône prefecture removed a subsidy request from Alternatiba, Mediapart revealed at the end of last December. This envelope of 3 euros was to be used to renovate the kitchen of the Lyon association bar of the environmental movement.

His cut was announced in May 2023, during the college meeting of the Fund for the Development of Associative Life (FDVA). According to a report obtained by the investigative media, the secretary general of the Rhône prefecture, Vanina Nicoli, indicated that she was withdrawing Alternatiba's subsidy request because of its "problematic position on civil disobedience" .

The senior civil servant would have referred to the republican engagement contract (CER), declaring that it implies “the duty not to undermine public order”. Since the Separatism law of August 2021, associations are required to sign the CER. Any breach of its values ​​exposes them to the refusal of the subsidies granted. “We imagined it targeting associations categorized as “Islamist” or “separatist”, but the CER mainly serves to create a halo of suspicion around environmental associations,” notes Julien Talpin, sociologist at the CNRS and member of the Observatory of Associative Freedoms. .
“We don’t want to let ourselves be censored”

Contacted by Reporterre, the prefecture confirmed that it “did not wish to subsidize civil disobedience actions carried out by this associative structure”. She argues that “obtaining a grant is not a right” and that of the 593 applications submitted, only 283 were selected. However, according to Mediapart, Alternatiba's request was supported by a positive opinion from the prefecture's services.

read the article