February 26, 2021
The French National Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a controversial bill the government says is needed to strengthen the country’s secular principles, but which critics say is little more than an attack on the 5.7-million-strong Muslim community.
Legislators in the lower house National Assembly, which is dominated by the party of President Emmanuel Macron, voted 347 to 151 in favor of the bill with 65 abstaining. That was an overwhelming 70 percent margin. And much of the opposition represented rightwing critics who said the bill was too weak, rather than supporters of Muslims.
The legislation will now be passed up to France’s upper house, the conservative-led Senate. The Senate has the power to amend the bill but is expected to greenlight it.
“It’s an extremely strong secular offensive,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told RTL radio ahead of the vote February 16. “It’s a tough text … but necessary for the republic.”
Among the more than 70 separate articles, the law expands the ability of the state to close places of worship and religious schools, as well as to ban preachers it considers “extremist.”
Amid concerns about the foreign funding of mosques, it requires religious groups to declare large foreign donations and have their accounts certified.
President Macron said the legislation is needed to halt the development of a “counter-society” that rejects secularism (laicite in French), equality and other French values.
But many in France thinks that Macron who has not gone after Muslims before is just trying to shore up his standing with right-wing voters before next year’s elections, when his main threat will come from the right-wing opposition Republicans (LR) party and the far-right National Rally, who say the bill does not go far enough.
They have called for a ban on hejab, which they both view as a manifestation of Islamism, rather than an expression of cultural identity or religious piety.
Marine Le Pen, head of the National Rally, said, “I consider that the headscarf is an Islamist item of clothing.” She proposed a new law to ban Islamist ideologies,” which she called “totalitarian and murderous.”
A new poll shows her within striking distance of Macron.
The Macron government has rejected calls for a wider headscarf ban, but the law just passed will expand the demand for “religious neutrality” in clothing to people working for private companies carrying out public services, such as bus drivers.