The wedding was considered a sham pretext to obtain residency.
The municipality must pay €15,500 in compensation for refusing to marry a couple suspected of a sham marriage.
The mayor of the city of Chessy, in the Seine-et-Marne department, refused to register the marriage of a 50-year-old Finnish citizen and a 40-year-old Algerian man, who was subject to deportation. He suspected the couple intended to marry to regularize the fiancé's status.
During the court proceedings, the municipality faced financial claims from the couple: they demanded a significant amount of €15,500 from the city, €500 for each day the mayor refused to publish the announcement of the upcoming wedding.
The court deemed this demand legitimate, finding no reason for the mayor to refuse the couple's marriage registration. The financial burden grew, and the municipality had no choice but to concede and register the marriage.
But then this saga took an unexpected turn: immediately after the marriage registration, the newlyweds separated. The Finnish bride moved out of the apartment the couple rented in the suburbs of Paris, left France, and returned to her homeland. As for the Algerian husband, he remains unavailable at the official marriage registration address.
The almost immediate separation, in the municipality's view, further confirms suspicions of the complete insincerity of this union. The judge will have to decide whether the municipality should still pay the €15,500 compensation despite the clear signs of a sham marriage.
As always, it is interesting to know what the French think about a given situation. And opinions... are divided! Some fully support the mayor, arguing that the Algerian man was subject to deportation. Others emphasize that the mayor broke the law. They say that the law, whether good or bad, is not subject to discussion.
Here is a rather typical comment on social media on this topic: "The question is not whether it is normal for a person subject to deportation to marry in this case. We have the right to consider it absurd, but let’s not forget that the mayor is, first and foremost, the chief official of his municipality. He is responsible for upholding the law, and nothing but the law, within this municipality. Evading this duty under the pretext of personal beliefs is unacceptable because it is not permitted by the law itself."
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