A French town has been ordered to remove a statue of the Virgin Mary which was publically funded and sits on municipal land.
Despite having a strong Catholic contingent, France has some of the strictest secular laws in the world and displaying religious symbols in public is banned.
The statue was erected in 2011 to much controversy in the eastern town of Publier – there was no council debate on it going up in a public park.
Publier’s mayor, Gaston Lacroix, has said he will try to have the statue moved to private land.
The decision, made by a local administrative court, was criticised by right wing politicians, including Front National’s Jacques Clostermann, who said it represented a “new tyranny”.
In France,the separation of the church and state is deeply ingrained in society.
