Eating pork or being satisfied with “bread and water”: controversy in the canteen in a village near Toulouse
In this commune of Muretain, the mayor orders the staff of the canteen to mix the pork with the accompaniments. Parents of students denounce “a discriminatory measure against Muslims”
“It’s eat or die”, summarizes a parent of a student. The canteen of the Lucie Aubrac school group, in Beaumont-sur-Lèze, near Toulouse, is controversial. Newly, the town hall has changed its operation. Since September, the various right mayor Olivier Carte has asked the staff of the municipal canteen to mix the meat with the accompaniments. And the days when pork is on the menu, it gets stuck for Muslim students.
Since the decision of the elected, in the canteen – which does not offer a substitute dish -, “the three Muslim children eat bread and water”, confides a member of staff.
But what is the aim of such a measure? “Nobody understood”, answers confused this parent of pupil who wishes to remain anonymous. “The alert was given by a family, who told us that their child could no longer eat in the canteen, he adds. We contacted the town hall to find out if there have been any changes. replied that nothing had changed. However, the canteen staff attributed to us that an order had been given.” For three months, a group of parents tried to resolve this “inadmissible situation”. In vain.
In my circo, the far-right mayor of Beaumont-sur-Lèze has imposed on school canteen staff to mix pork with dishes.
Obvious objective: to contradict vegetarian, Muslim and Jewish children to eat pork… or not to eat at all. ud83dude44
— Christophe Bex (@ChristopheBex) December 8, 2022
The convening of a canteen committee on November 9 did not change anything. “We still got some details, the canteen who sits on this commission told us that she received the order from the mayor to mix proteins and accompaniments in a certain number of dishes.”
Distraught, they alerted the elected representatives of the opposition. The subject was put back on the table during a municipal council. “We were told that everything was back to normal,” points out opposition politician Dominique Blanchot.
“I took my daughter out of this school”
The multiple feedback from parents of students received by the deputy of the 6th district of Haute-Garonne, where Beaumont-sur-Lèze is located, indicates the opposite. This Thursday, on his Twitter account, the Nupes parliamentarian Christophe Bex denounced the actions of the “extreme right mayor” (he sponsored Marine Le Pen for the presidential election, editor’s note). According to him, the only but is to “force Muslim, Jewish and vegetarian students to eat pork or not to eat at all”.
The atmosphere has become deleterious in the town of 1,500 souls, according to several testimonies. The father of a Muslim student, concerned about the situation, even withdrew his child from school to enroll him in a neighboring town.
“The mayor took this decision to fight against communitarianism, I was told… We can have the political opinions we want but to come to this, it’s unfortunate,” he says. Contacted, OlivierCarté did not wish to speak.