'Scandalous ideology': French ministers denounce Lyon mayor over meatless school snacks

The French government had criticized as "scandalous ideology" the decision by the Green Party mayor of Lyon to briefly remove meat from school meals notwithstanding suggesting no such objection when the city's previous right-wing government imposed a similar measure. Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon, said the measure is intending to impose a meat-less single menu in schools was taken to comply with COVID-19 sanitary measures that restrict the number of children attending the school cafeteria at the same time.

The model allows for the daily 29,000 meals eaten in school canteens across Lyon to be served during the long 11.30 am to 1.45 pm lunchtime, city hall said. And as it includes eggs as well as fish, it "remains stable" and ensures "no child is excluded," it added.

But the measure has done met with the heavy study from the right-wing opposition in the city council.

Etienne Blanc, who ran against the Doucet in last year's municipal elections, said last week that "this way of saying a choice, without any possible alternatives, is completely unacceptable."

Beatrice de Montille, a right-wing official from the city's third district, said meanwhile that "in the city is of gastronomy, the green majority takes advantage of the health crisis to pass ideological measures without meetings."

"That the right, which allied itself to my ancestor at the time of the (June 2020) municipal elections, cries out for ideology today, makes me smile," he said.

Still, members of the state waded into the debate over the weekend with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin writing on Twitter on Saturday: "In addition to the unacceptable insult to French farmers and butchers, it is clear that the moralist and elitist policy of the "Greens" excludes the working classes."