Muslim High School Wins Legal Battle for State Funding in Northern France

End of a legal battle! In its decision taken during a hearing in May, the judge concluded that "the refusal to pay by the region was not justified" and ordered the rejection of the regional authority’s appeal, reports La Voix du Nord. The region is therefore required to pay the 275,000 euros to the Averroès high school for the 2019/2020 school year. It had suspended the payment of subsidies in March 2020 due to suspicions about its financing.

The case had been brought before the administrative court of Lille, which had issued an order on July 6 last in favor of the high school. The summary judge had ordered the Hauts-de-France region "to pay the Averroès association, on a provisional basis, the sum of 274,638.84 euros for the boarding school allowance due for the 2019/2020 school year", and this "within 10 days under penalty of 200 euros per day of delay". Dissatisfied, the regional council, chaired by Xavier Bertrand (LR), had appealed to the Council of State in the hope of winning. But it has definitively lost its battle against the high school.