Bordeaux School’s Halal Menu Sparks Secularism Debate in France

The controversial menu is a cheese mini-roll, halal beef sauté, cauliflower, cheese and fruit, the only dish served in the cafeteria on Monday, May 22, 2023, reports Le Figaro. Alerted by the father of one of the students at the Émile Combes college in Bordeaux, Virginie Tournay, spokesperson for the Parents vigilants movement, launched by Reconquête! in September 2022 in Gironde, cries out in indignation: "What is shocking is that we are flouting the principle of secularism and that it is assumed." According to her, "we are giving in to a community pressure that targets our children because they are malleable."

"We are teaching them a politicized way of living and seeing society when the college should precisely be a bulwark against adult problems," she insists, also pointing out that the confessional technique (slaughtering animals without prior stunning) "poses health risks." "The irony is that this is taking place in a school that bears the name of a politician who fought for the adoption of the 1905 law (separating Church and State, editor’s note)," argues Tournay.

Reacting to the controversy, the Gironde department regretted "a communication error from the Pronote software." It assures that it did not impose the halal menu on all the college students. On Monday, "chicken tenders" were offered to the Bordeaux students of Émile Combes. The Law, which neither prohibits nor requires schools to serve dishes with a religious character, however requires that the practice be accompanied by an alternative.