This is a complete rejection. The government will not take up the Interior Minister’s proposals on the veil, its spokesperson Sophie Primas said on Wednesday. Bruno Retailleau estimated on Monday that “accompaniers (on school trips) do not have to be veiled” and he also spoke out in favor of banning the wearing of the veil at university.
According to Sophie Primas, who spoke during the report of the Council of Ministers at the Elysée, Minister LR (Les Républicains) himself clarified that “it was his personal position and that this subject, probably not having a majority in Parliament, was not a subject that would be addressed by the government in the current state of the parliamentary majority.
“What he defends would be contrary to secularism”
“School trips are school outside the walls”, insisted Bruno Retailleau in the daily newspaper The Parisian by calling for a change in the law. He also spoke out in favor of banning the wearing of the veil at university, attracting in both cases strong criticism from the left of the political spectrum but also from specialists in secularism.
The historian Charles Mercier thus recalled in The Parisian that the Council of State and case law have established that prohibiting a parent from accompanying a school outing solely because of an ostensible religious sign was discrimination. “Secularism presupposes the neutrality of those who exercise a public service, not of others. This is to guarantee equality and the same freedom for all. What this minister says here proves a lack of understanding of French secularism. What he defends would be contrary to secularism”, analyzes on X Nicolas Cadène, co-founder of Vigie de la Laïcité, which defines itself as “an independent and civic organization”.
