Frenchtown halls can continue bedecking their entrance halls with nativity scenes, the country’s highest administrative court ruled on Wednesday, after a bitter two-year battle over whether doing so flouted rules on secularism.

However, adding a hair-splitting condition, the State Council said such cribs could only be installed if the intent was “cultural, artistic or festive”, and not religious proselytism.

A row over whether nativity scenes should be allowed in town halls and other public buildings erupted two years ago, after a court in Nantes, western France, controversially ordered a nearby town to remove the crib from the mayoral entrance hall. This followed a complaint from the secular campaign group Fédération Nationale de la Libre Pensée (National Federation of Free Thought).

The Nantes court based its ruling on a 1905 law that enshrines the strict separation of church and state. Eventually the Nantes ruling was reversed but another town outside Paris, Melun, was banned from keeping its crib.

The move sparked outrage across the political spectrum and led Right-wing MP Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet to warn against “following up on the wars of religion with the wars of secularism”.

Nadine Morano, a fellow Right-wing MP, added: “Secularism must not kill our country, our roots and our traditions.” Marine Le Pen, the far-Right Front National leader, slammed the ban as “stupid and blinkered”.