Clichy (AFP)

"Action to no longer suffer": the Union of French Muslim Democrats (UDMF) launched Sunday in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) its election campaign for the municipal elections in March, where this micro-party "laic" hopes to present a fifty lists.

"The Muslim bears all the evils, he is served as food for every major electoral issue, the answer must not be religious or communal, it must be political," said UDMF President Nagib Azergui, in front of about 80 people .

The UDMF, "Muslim, democratic, secular and French", wants to "fight rejection, discrimination" in the face of "sectarian speeches", "those who dream of a France folded on itself" and "n ' have not understood the richness of diversity and plurality, "he added.

Standing on the platform in front of a French flag and a European, he recalled the recent "relentlessness of some political leaders to want to exclude our lists from the next election".

Several figures on the right have called for the ban of lists "communalists" to the municipal and the boss of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau deposited on November 8 a proposal in this direction, after a new controversy around the wearing of the veil. Emmanuel Macron has spoken against such a ban.

"The UDMF is not and will never be a confessional party or reserved for Muslims We are not muftis, the religious sphere is not our field", hammered Mr. Azergui, who regrets that "the Islamization of debates "too often eclipses the problems of society and the increase of inequalities.

Micro-party created in 2012, the UDMF has collected less than 29,000 votes to European women last May, with however some peaks in some municipalities in the Paris region: 7.43% in Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val-d'Oise) , 6.77% in Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) ... In Poissy (Yvelines), an office had collected 29.81% of the vote. But 1.57% on the whole commune.

For the municipal elections in March, the UDMF, which claims nearly 1,000 members, aims according to Mr. Azergui to submit about fifty lists.

Curious, Abdelmajid, a 43-year-old trader, is here "to see what they have to say". And ironically looking around him in the room: "To believe the TV there are only bearded terrorists who want to break the Republic.I do not see many".

In the public too, Inès, a 20-year-old self-entrepreneur, finds it "essential that Muslims begin to wake up at the political level". "We want to participate, without bringing our religious ideas, we must begin to make our voices heard".

© 2019 AFP