The President of the Republic was to install the Secularism Observatory this morning at the Élysée, in the presence of several ministers, including those of the interior and education. This new body, created by decree in 2007 – but never activated by former president Nicolas Sarkozy – was entrusted to the former socialist deputy and former minister Jean-Louis Bianco. The actual creation of the Observatory was announced last December by François Hollande, well before the Baby Loup crèche affair was relaunched, at the end of March, by the decision of the Court of Cassation to agree with the veiled childcare worker. “The Élysée made me this proposal a month and a half ago,” says Jean-Louis Bianco. I was surprised, because I was not a candidate, but I accepted, because this question of secularism has fascinated me for many years. »
Current events require, however, it is the follow-up to be given to the Baby Loup affair that he will have to look into. According to our information, François Hollande, who asked the Prime Minister to bring together all the political groups to consider a law on the wearing of religious symbols in the company, will ask Jean-Louis Bianco to quickly meet the rights defender, Dominique Baudis, to work on this subject. “It is not a question of initiating a long consultation process as in 2004 with the Stasi commission, but of arriving at an opinion, if possible before the summer,” explains an advisor to the Élysée.
A charter of secularism
President Hollande should also ask the Observatory to comment on a secularism charter currently being developed for national education. Concerning the teaching of secular morality in schools, the mission currently carried out at the request of Vincent Peillon is about to be completed. The Observatory, which welcomes among its members two of the three authors of the report – Alain Bergounioux and Laurence Loeffel – will ensure the implementation of the decisions that will be taken by the minister. François Hollande should also ask the Observatory to provide him with an annual report on the state of secularism and, beyond this monitoring and audit work, encourage it to carry out advisory work with local elected officials and religions to identify solutions to concrete problems. François Hollande has always defended a pragmatic conception of relations with religions, whether on his lands in Corrèze or since he was at the Élysée. He has thus prudently decided not to include the 1905 law in the Constitution and does not appear to want to call into question certain funding for private education as the most militant secularists are demanding from him. The choice of Jean-Louis Bianco is a sign in this regard. Close to Ségolène Royal, the man who was secretary general of the Élysée under Mitterrand is not a product of the rad-soc tradition. “I had a very religious Catholic mother. I am rooted in Christian culture, but I define myself as agnostic,” specifies this socialist who never responded to the offers that the Freemasons made to him.
Four elected officials
According to the decree published at the end of the week in the Official Journal, the Observatory is composed, in addition to senior civil servants who represent major administrations, of parliamentarians and qualified personalities. Four elected officials: socialist deputies Jean Glavany and UMP François-Noël Buffet; UMP senator Marie-Jo Zimmermann and her left-wing radical colleague Françoise Laborde, author of a proposed law on the duty of neutrality in private daycare centers. The eleven qualified personalities make up a wide range of skills: intellectuals, lawyers, human resources directors, local elected officials or great servants of the State (Alain Chrisnacht, former advisor to Lionel Jospin).
If the Masonic obedience is represented (Patrick Kessel, former grand master of the Grand Orient), the cults do not enter the Observatory. “They will, however, be consulted as soon as it is necessary,” underlines Jean-Louis Bianco, who insists on a light team to move forward efficiently. “On the Baby Loup sequels, I will not express myself and I will ask everyone to have the same restraint. The objective is to find positions that are as collegial as possible. » The president hopes that the Observatory will not only be on a defensive line of secularism, but that it will also succeed in playing a role of appeasement in a society. “The French are suspicious of each other, there is a climate of tension. My ambition is to show that secularism is a treasure,” summarizes the former deputy for Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.
