Sébastien Lecornu entrusted socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj and centrist senator Nathalie Delattre with a mission on the application, defense and promotion of the principle of secularism, according to a letter consulted Wednesday July 8, confirming information from LCP.
In this mission letter, the head of government emphasizes that the main principles set by the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State have remained unchanged, but that their application has been supplemented by several laws over the last twenty years, since that of 2004 on religious symbols in schools.
A development which reflects “the complex reality of our country”, he argues, evoking “the greatest religious diversity in Europe” which “is experiencing both strong secularization as well as a growing affirmation of religion in society, against a backdrop of the rise of separatist phenomena”. “If the French say they are largely attached to the principle of secularism, its concrete application still raises many questions, even tensions,” adds the Prime Minister.
The government thus tasks parliamentarians with evaluating the public policy of secularism and its organization, in particular by verifying the relevance of an interministerial committee, set up in 2021, which has not actually met since, according to Jérôme Guedj.
“Defender of secularism”
They will also have to identify all the public actors confronted on a daily basis with the issues of secularism and its challenges – mayors, university presidents, administration officials, etc. – who, for some, have already established “guides to secularism”, to establish a “corpus”, according to Jérôme Guedj.
The two elected officials must also question existing legal tools, in particular the provisions of the 1905 law establishing the rules according to which religious practices do not disturb public order. Penal measures that are “unknown” and “very weakly implemented”, according to the mission letter which asks them to understand the reasons and propose avenues for improvement.
Last year, Jérôme Guedj, now a declared presidential candidate, proposed the creation of a “defender of secularism”, based on the model of the defender of rights. “This is one of the avenues,” he said. “My state of mind is to dispassionate a debate which is very present in society and for which there is a lack of public policy tools, even though it sometimes gives rise to exploitation or communication stunts”.
Jérôme Guedj and Nathalie Delattre, former minister and president of the Radical Party, must submit their report by the end of October 2026.
