Paris (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron pronounced Tuesday against the prohibition, wanted by the right, of the community lists in the municipal elections of March, while promising new measures against communitarianism "in the coming weeks".

Speaking at the congress of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), the head of state has brought an end to receive at the request of the right that was supported by some elected to the RN and left. It is carried by the president of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau, which deposited on November 8 a proposal of law to fight against the "communitarian lists", in full controversy on the secularity and the veil.

The senator of Vendée has also reacted quickly to the words of Emmanuel Macron denouncing "a renunciation of more", which "theorizes the impotence of the state and trivializes communitarianism". Same tone of the extreme right: the spokesman of the RN Sebastien Chenu denounced on BFMTV "the impotence" of a president "hypocrite" whose party will "support elected officials who are wet to the neck in communitarianism "as, according to him, in Denain or Maubeuge.

The head of state defended a "pragmatic" position, calling for "not to confuse everything" by emphasizing that it is "in no case a framework of combat or exclusion" against a part of the French society.

For him, "it is not a question of proclaiming the prohibition" of the community lists "to solve the problem".

"We have clear rules, should we jostle them because, suddenly, the spirits are warming up, I call myself collectively to be careful" to "see all the consequences of what is proposed", he said. valued.

"How to define" a community list? "Who would be the judge and according to what criteria?", He questioned. "Who can think that such lists will come face to face?", He added, pointing out that "those who develop a communitarian project, this political Islam (...) very often hide themselves" .

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In his request, Mr. Retailleau targeted by name the Union of French Muslim Democrats (UDMF), a micro-party created in 2012 that has collected less than 29,000 votes to Europeans, with however peaks in some municipalities in the Paris region.

Its proposed law aims in particular to prevent the filing of lists or the financing of candidates leading a "communitarian campaign" and supporting claims "based on ethnic origin or religious affiliation".

But for LFI member Adrien Quatennens, "it is extremely difficult to define what a community list is". "If Emmanuel Macron chooses not to forbid, that will not prevent us from crossing the iron on the bottom with all those who would be our political opponents", according to him.

Aiming "political Islam" and "political Islamism" of those who have "a project of separation from the Republic", Emmanuel Macron said that the government would announce "concrete new actions in the coming weeks".

These measures will focus on the decisions that may take elected after the vote, said AFP Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Communities. "When we have a doubt, the control of the prefect's legality over their actions must be revisited and more systematic," he explained.

In his speech, Emmanuel Macron recalled that 12 places of worship had been closed, as well as four non-contract schools, 9 associative institutions and nearly 130 bars.

© 2019 AFP