The "Sages" validate the prefectural power to evacuate squatters

The 2007 law - amended in 2020 - which authorizes such a procedure does not infringe respect for private life, nor the inviolability of the home, nor the right to an effective remedy since the evacuation decision can be challenged in referred to administrative justice, estimated the "Wise Men". They therefore rejected a "priority question of constitutionality" (QPC) on this subject.

The Council, however, accompanied its decision with a "reservation of interpretation": the law, it considered, does not authorize the prefect to order the expulsion "without taking into account the personal or family situation of the occupant whose evacuation is requested".

The Elders were asked to rule on this issue at the request of the lawyer for a woman who had been deported on the basis of the contested provision.

Associations such as the Right to Housing (DAL), the Abbé Pierre Foundation or the Secours Catholique had supported her in her approach, in particular to challenge a provision introduced into the law at the end of 2020, which extends the power of the prefect in matters of " forced evacuation" to any type of "home" - which according to the associations is too vague a formulation, opening the way to an application even to empty dwellings.

The "reserve" introduced by the Elders, "it's better than nothing", commented to AFP Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, the spokesperson for the DAL. But the overall rejection of the QPC is all the more disappointing as we are currently seeing a "hardening" in the fight against squatters, noted Mr. Eyraud.

The associations are indeed headwinds against a bill currently being examined in Parliament, which notably plans to triple the penalties incurred by squatters.