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The Prime Minister answered a question from a LR MP on the veil, Tuesday, October 15 at the National Assembly (photo illustration). Ludovic Marin / Pool via REUTERS

The Prime Minister said on Tuesday that he did not want to " make a law on school chaperones " in a context of controversy over the wearing of the veil.

" I do not think for myself [...] that the challenge today is to make a law on school chaperones, " said Edouard Philippe in the National Assembly, in response to a deputy Republicans who urged him to " get out of the ambiguity ".

" The challenge is to fight effectively, with the support of all our fellow citizens, the excesses community , continued Mr. Philippe. [...] The challenge is to prevent children, because of their parents' religious convictions from communitarianism or political Islam, from escaping school. "

# Secularism: "I do not think for myself that the challenge today is to make a law on accompanying people!", Slice @EPhilippePM. For the Prime Minister, "the challenge is to fight effectively the community excesses". #DirectAN #QAG pic.twitter.com/OH8F3cnq91

LCP (@LCP) October 15, 2019

The controversy over the wearing of the veil for school accompaniers was relaunched last Friday when a member of the National Assembly took a mother veiled during a session of the Regional Council of Burgundy-Franche-Comté.

The majority seems divided on the issue. If the law does not prohibit the wearing of the veil in this situation, as Édouard Philippe reminded, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer had estimated Sunday that it was " not desirable in our society " .

School trips: Blanquer prefers that an accompanying mother does not wear the veil because "it is not desirable in our society" pic.twitter.com/6hbOwc5tMB

BFMTV (@BFMTV) October 13, 2019

Conversely, the government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said it does not have " trouble for a veiled woman to participate in a field trip ."

The issue debated in the Senate

The Senate will seize the subject as early as next week, with consideration in committee of a draft law LR " tending to ensure the religious neutrality of persons contributing to the public service of education ."

The text will then be discussed in the Chamber on October 29, while MP LR Eric Ciotti announced Monday that he was " again tabling " a bill in the National Assembly to this effect.

(with AFP)