French justice retoked Wednesday a decree which imposed since Saturday the generalized wearing of the mask in thirteen towns of Bas-Rhin, in Alsace (East), evoking an “attack on personal freedom”.
In its order, consulted by AFP, the Strasbourg administrative court leaves the prefecture until “Monday September 7 at 12 noon” to issue a new decree on the wearing of masks in Strasbourg and in the 12 other main cities of the department .
The latter will have to exclude the municipalities and “time periods” which are not characterized “by a high population density” or by “local circumstances likely to favor the spread” of the coronavirus.
The decree to be reviewed imposed, in a general way, day and night, the wearing of the mask to “people over 11 years old” in the 13 towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants of the Bas-Rhin, except to “people practicing physical, sporting and artistic activities ”or“ in a disabled situation with a medical certificate ”.
Such a provision “undermines the freedom to come and go and the personal freedom of people called upon to move” in the municipalities concerned, pointed out the court.
The prefecture justified this order by the “worrying” acceleration of the COVID-19 epidemic, “in particular among young people” with an “incidence rate” which doubled “every week”.
But for the court, “it does not appear from the documents in the file that there would be permanently and in all of the (13 municipalities concerned) a high concentration of population or special circumstances likely to contribute to the expansion of COVID- 19 ”.
“It’s a victory and a satisfaction, that’s exactly what we had pleaded” Tuesday at the hearing, responded to AFP Me Marc Jantkowiak, the lawyer for the two applicants, the psychologist Vincent Feireisen and the doctor Christian Chartier whom he emphasizes that they “are not anti-masks”.
The court sanctioned “the too general” and “disproportionate” character of the decree, analyzed Me Jantkowiak.
“What is sanctioned is the fact of imposing the wearing of a mask day and night throughout the territory of the 13 largest municipalities of the Bas-Rhin when it is not necessary”, he added. .
“Of course, there is a risk of contamination, of course there is the principle of precaution which is essential but this principle cannot go so far as to require someone who walks his dog at midnight to wear a mask while ‘there is no longer anyone in the street,’ he argues.
According to the lawyer, this Strasbourg case law could “obviously be used elsewhere in France” by “people who wish to challenge decrees” requiring the wearing of a mask, recently taken by several cities or prefectures.