France, laïcité, religious statues and public places

In 2011, at the instigation of its Mayor, Gaston Lacroix, the commune of Publier, Haute-Savoie, unveiled a statue of Notre Dame du Léman in a municipal park. The statue had been erected without any prior debate in the municipal council and the costs of the exercise, some €24,000, had been funded from the municipal budget.

The Loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des Eglises et de l’Etat declares in Article 28 that: Continue reading