INTERVIEW
While a Sunday Diary poll shows French anxiety about secularism threatened, Gilles Clavreul invites to take "hindsight" in relation to these figures. The director general of the think tank Aurore "do not think that the French want a hardening of secularism", and points to the "failure of political response" on these issues.
The prejudicial silence of the State
For the former adviser to François Hollande, if the French initially consider the National Gathering "as a good bulwark to Islamism" is that there is a problem in "the political care of this danger ". Gilles Clavreul is primarily targeting the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, invited to finally take a stand on the subject. "State silence is damaging and favors extremist rhetoric," said the former interministerial delegate for anti-racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred.
Gilles Clavreul, quotes in particular "this speech on secularism, which the President of the Republic speaks since taking office, and that it postponed from month to month". By doing this, Emmanuel Macron leaves the field free notably to the National Rally, "whose formatted speech" can seduce. It is also the political force best able to fight against Islamism, according to the JDD survey.
The state must protect the citizens
But at the same time, Emmanuel Macron is "very firm" on issues of radicalization, especially since the attack on the police headquarters in Paris. The President of the Republic demands in particular a plan of struggle on the subject. "It means attacking clandestine Koranic schools or dissolving a certain number of associations," according to Gilles Clavreul.
A duality difficult to maintain despite everything for the director general of the think tank Dawn , which believes that it is "difficult to dissociate secularism, liberal inspiration, and the fight against communitarianism". Because the state has a responsibility for the former adviser to François Hollande, that of "protecting citizens against attempts to hold religious". And against that, "secularism is a tool".
This is why Emmanuel Macron's silence on the subject is difficult to understand. "The more the President recedes the deadline of his stance on the subject, the more he increases a certain nervousness", according to him, starting within his own political family, "composite and fragile on these issues there".