DIVISIONS HAVE emerged in France’s ruling party over plans by President Nicolas Sarkozy to initiate a national debate on secularism and the place of Islam in society.
With polls suggesting the far-right Front National (FN) leader Marine Le Pen is now more popular than Mr Sarkozy and a series of recent controversies provoking rows over the compatibility of Islam with the secular values of the French state, the centre-right UMP says the debate – to begin on April 5th – is a response to public concerns.
“We don’t have any taboos. Unless we look at all these issues, then we should not be surprised if our compatriots feel we’re not taking their preoccupations on board,” said employment minister Xavier Bertrand.
The format of the debate, initiated by UMP president Jean-François Copé with Mr Sarkozy’s support, has yet to be confirmed, but a government-led debate on national identity last year involved a series of nationwide town hall meetings and an online forum for input from the public. Among the topics expected to feature on the agenda are Muslim veils, halal food, minarets and state funding of religious organisations.
The idea, coinciding with a public information campaign on the face veil ban due to come into force next month, has already exposed clear divisions in the governing bloc. Senior ministers belonging to the normally disciplined UMP have openly questioned the wisdom of the debate and warned that it could damage relations with the country’s large Muslim population. “If this debate were to be focused only on Islam, if it were to lead to a stigmatisation of Muslims, then I would oppose it,” prime minister François Fillon said.
Ministers have bad memories of last year’s botched national identity debate, which was quietly shelved after descending into rancour and giving the FN a boost.
An IFOP poll in January showed that more than two-thirds of French people consider the integration of Muslims in their society a failure, and the UMP believes Islam will be a key issue in next year’s presidential election. But the debate has revealed two camps within the party: those who believe it must check the FN’s growth by reclaiming Le Pen’s signature issues and others who believe that strategy only strengthens the far right and that economic reform should be the priority.
Senior UMP figures have warned that the debate has been poorly prepared and risks getting out of hand. The idea was “useless and dangerous”, said Mr Sarkozy’s former adviser Patrick Devedjan, while foreign minister Alain Juppé warned that it needed to be “kept under control”. One of the most contentious questions is whether the UMP plans to revisit the landmark 1905 law – the cornerstone of French laïcité – on the separation of church and state. One minister has suggested reform is needed to allow the state to fund places of worship, but Dominique Paillé, the UMP’s integration specialist, said changing the 1905 law would be “suicidal”.
Mr Copé, who devised the national debate, insists it will proceed. He sought to calm nerves this week by declaring that the 1905 law would “not be touched” but said “solutions” would be found to a number of problems. Among the possibilities are a ban on preaching in Arabic, zero tolerance of women refusing to accept treatment by male medics and the training of imams in France.
The disquiet in the UMP is set to grow, however, after a second opinion poll in a week put Ms Le Pen in first place, at 24 per cent, among likely presidential candidates. Speaking before the poll findings – the best in the FN’s history – were announced, Ms Le Pen cautiously welcomed the debate on secularism. “A little more blah-blah [from the UMP] and I’ll be at 25 per cent in the opinion polls,” she predicted.
ISLAM AND FRENCH SECULARISM ON THE AGENDA
Praying on the street
In Paris, Marseille and about a dozen other cities, hundreds of Muslims worship are on the street during Friday prayers due to a lack of space in their mosques (40 per cent of France's 2,000 sites of Muslim worship are smaller than 100sq m). Both Nicolas Sarkozy and Marine Le Pen are opposed to the practice, but the question of how to fund expansions is highly controversial.
Halal food
This generated controversy when Le Pen reacted angrily last year to a decision by the fast-food chain Quick to stock only halal products in one of its restaurants in a Paris suburb. For the secularism debate, the question is: How should the state respond to requests for halal food in its public services?
Training of imams
Many of France's imams are employed by states such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Some don't speak French. There has been debate for years on how to train imams in France without breaching the 1905 law that blocks state funding for religious groups.