A French administrative court has annulled a €12,000 grant awarded by Lyon’s Green-led city council to the NGO SOS Méditerranée, ruling that the grant lacked clear safeguards on how the money would be used.
The payment of the grant was challenged in court by a candidate on a list of representatives for the Greater Lyon metropolitan area, as a member of the Reconquête party, led by Éric Zemmour.
In its ruling on Thursday, April 23rd, the court found that a resolution adopted by Lyon City Council in November 2023 “imposes no requirements regarding the terms of use” of the grant. It also provided for “no specific checks” to ensure that the grant would be “used exclusively for its international humanitarian sea rescue operations.” The court ordered the Green mayor, Grégory Doucet, to instruct the NGO to repay the allocated sum.
The case forms part of a wider debate on local finances. For several months now, the left-wing city councils of Paris and Lyon have come under scrutiny for awarding large subsidies to various organisations. They are accused of funding these groups on ideological grounds, even though their objectives bear no relation to the well-being of the residents of these major cities.
A report by the independent think-tank Génération Libre said Lyon’s executive allocated €110 million to such associations in 2024 alone.
Reconquête welcomed Thursday’s decision as a win for “transparency in public spending” and the “defence of the public interest.” It considers it “an important victory for respect for the law and the proper use of public funds.” The party added that this decision “serves as a reminder that local authorities must strictly regulate the allocation of grants.”
This is not the first time such a case has come before the French courts. On several occasions, local authorities—towns and departments—have granted support to the NGO SOS Méditerranée. The organisation, founded in 2015 at the height of the migration crisis triggered by events in Syria, is officially recognised for assisting migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe, but it has been accused of having ties with smuggling networks and is known for its political activism.
The mayor of Lyon has taken note of the court’s decision but intends to challenge the ruling before the Council of State, which in 2024 ruled in favour of the Paris City Council in a similar case. In 2019, the Paris City Council paid a grant of €100,000 to SOS Méditerranée. Although contested, the payment was ultimately upheld because the Council of State ruled that it was a humanitarian rather than a political organisation and therefore fell within the scope of potential financial support from the city council. The city of Montpellier, however, had one of its grants cancelled by the Council of State on the grounds that it was “insufficiently targeted.”
SOS Méditerranée is supported by 116 local authorities, which together account for nearly 10% of its budget.
