The debate lasted nearly five hours. After passionate exchanges, senators adopted Tuesday, October 29, a bill to prohibit the wearing of religious symbols to parents accompanying school trips in France. The text extends "to persons who participate, including during field trips, to activities related to education in or outside institutions" the prohibition of conspicuous religious symbols imposed by the law of 2004.

>> Controversy over the veil: 30 years of debate on secularism

Voted at 163 votes to 114, and 40 abstentions, the text must now be voted by the National Assembly to be adopted. An unlikely scenario because it is dominated by the presidential majority, The Republic on the march, mostly against. The 23 senators of the LREM group have all voted against Tuesday.

The Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, has himself expressed his opposition to the text. "Going beyond what is needed, a law would be counterproductive because it would send a messy message to families that need to be brought closer to school," he said.

"Bridging a legal vacuum"

This proposal was tabled by Senator LR from Val-d'Oise in July. But his examination comes after the words of a representative of the RN who took to part a veiled mother accompanying a school trip to the Regional Council of Burgundy-Franche-Comté, October 11.

In the wake, several politicians had expressed their opinion on the wearing of the veil by school chaperones, including Jean-Michel Blanquer, who had opposed his ban but felt that this religious dress was "not desirable in our society".

For the authors of the proposed law, it is a question of filling a "legal vacuum" in order to avoid leaving school heads to decide. "The law must be clear", supported the patron of Senators Republicans Bruno Retailleau.

"Intolerable climate"

The examination of this controversial text has been maintained despite the calls for renunciation of the left which denounces an "intolerable climate" and despite the context particularly tense by the attack that took place in front of the mosque of Bayonne, Monday, October 28.

Echo, the head of state on Tuesday night targeted those who "want to sow hatred and division" use the principle of secularism "to lead the fight against this or that religion. "Secularism is a principle of brotherhood that must live in every French as a compass," said Macron during the inauguration of the European Center of Judaism in Paris.

With AFP