Attention flammable matter: the deputies open Monday the debates in committee on the 51 articles of the bill against separatism, a strong marker of the five-year Macron which, against a background of the fight against radical Islamism, touches on ultra-sensitive subjects.
In the shadow of a news crushed by the health crisis, the work of this ad hoc committee, led by the former President of the National Assembly and former Minister François de Rugy, has so far taken place in a “very serene climate” according to several deputies of the majority, with a very dense program of hearings. Calm before heavy weather?
More than 1,700 amendments were tabled on this bill “reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic” in committee throughout the week, as a prelude to debates in the hemicycle from February 1.
Some amendments promise heated exchanges, including within the majority. MP Aurore Bergé set the tone by tabling an amendment to ban the veil for little girls, which had received the support of Marine Le Pen.
Badly received internally, the proposal of the MP for Yvelines was however deemed inadmissible “because it has no direct legal relationship with the bill”, she said Sunday evening with her colleague Jean-Baptiste Moreau.
The bill is supposed to translate Emmanuel Macron’s speech on October 2 at Les Mureaux, where the head of state presented his long-awaited strategy to fight radical Islam.
The beheading of Professor Samuel Paty then the attack on a church in Nice only reinforced expectations in a France where tensions relating to secularism, religions and above all Islam, regularly electrify public debate.
However, the bill also upsets pillars such as the 1905 law on the separation of churches and state or the freedoms of association and education, with the risk of side effects.
– “We let our guard down” –
“Among the reproaches made to us, we are told that to solve the problem of Muslims, we hit everyone. On the other side, we are accused of stigmatizing Islam without managing to hide it”, schematizes a LREM member of the commission. Taking up the antiphon from “On the march”, on the contrary, he emphasizes the “balance” of a text conceived as a “political object”.
The fight against separatism responds to “a real concern of our fellow citizens”, supports the “walker” of Val-d’Oise Guillaume Vuilletet. “For several years, we have let our guard down,” adds this spokesperson for the majority group on this text.
The bill provides for a battery of measures on the neutrality of the public service, the fight against online hatred, family education, reinforced control of associations, better transparency of religions and their funding, the fight against virginity certificates, polygamy or forced marriages, etc.
It is a text “of freedom and not of constraint” which “does not target religions in general, nor a religion in particular”, judge Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior who carries the text with Marlène Schiappa and will be present in the “mini hemicycle” of the Lamartine room next week.
“Ineffective”, ruled Sunday the head of RN Marine Le Pen, affirming that she was going to present “a counter-project”. MP LR Annie Genevard believes that “on the regal, the majority is paralyzed by accusations of amalgamation while we are in a situation of great emergency”.
Conversely, LFI denounces through the voice of its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon a “law of stigmatization of Muslims”.
“Everyone will want to make the text a political marker”, observes a LREM deputy. Including within the majority, where cohesion will be put to the test. As is often the case with sovereign subjects.
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