Paris (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron begins this week to unveil his strategy to fight "separatism" and Islamist radicalism, by going to a working-class district of Mulhouse on Tuesday to meet the police and associations.

The exercise promises to be perilous for the Head of State, whose objective is to "appease" and not "to put society under tension" or to stigmatize, according to those around him, on this very sensitive issue.

The debate on the rise of communitarianisms has hardened in recent months, fueled by lively controversies about secularism, the wearing of the veil or radicalism. A recent controversy over a veiled mother during a school outing, triggered by an elected RN, divided even within the government.

The head of state has regularly addressed this theme for months, lambasting communitarianism and radical Islam, especially in his speech after the murders at the Paris police headquarters.

Pressed to express himself by the oppositions, Emmanuel Macron intends to take the time: he should make a second trip next week and continue to present the continuation of the plan after the municipal elections of March 15 and 22.

In Mulhouse, he is expected in the Bourtzwiller district which "concentrates a certain number of issues", such as poverty or delinquency, and "where the Republic must reaffirm its presence", according to those around him.

He will do this with the police, before a round table with representatives of social, cultural, religious or sports associations.

Accompanied by the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, the Secretary of State Laurent Nuñez, Gabriel Attal (Youth) and Roxana Maracineanu (Sports), Emmanuel Macron planned to speak at the end of these exchanges.

This field visit will give him the opportunity to discuss the two main pillars of his plan.

On the one hand, that, coercive, of "the fight against withdrawal from communitarianism, Islamist separatism and radicalism". These are cases such as non-contract schools which do not respect republican principles, young girls who do not attend school, the separation of men and women in swimming pools, censorship of films or shows, cultural associations which become religious, according to a government source.

He will also present a positive aspect of the "republican reconquest of the districts which need it" in terms of public services, culture, sports equipment, so that the inhabitants are not tempted to go towards parallel circuits.

- "Political Islamism" -

In total, the government's strategy should be based on some 25 actions, according to a working document dating from January and unveiled by Le Point this weekend.

Some of them also relate to the organization of Islam in France, in particular the training of imams and the funding of places of worship by foreign countries. Like the large mosque under construction in Mulhouse, An-Nour, which is partly funded by Qatar.

"I hope that we will go much further by strengthening control over funding coming from abroad, by being much harder with regard to all forms of this political Islamism," said Emmanuel Macron in April 2019.

To prepare this plan, last week, he brought together Christophe Castaner and Sébastien Lecornu (Local Authorities), LREM deputies Aurore Bergé and Aurelien Taché as well as a dozen mayors who note community drift in their commune, like Olivier Klein ( Clichy), Eric Menassi (Trèbes) or the former mayor of Sarcelles François Pupponi.

"The President of the Republic does not, however, want to go into the veil, which divides his majority and on which the National Rally has provoked us," according to a government source.

The right has been calling Emmanuel Macron for months to be more firm on this issue. "We are losing the fight against Islamism", said Sunday in the JDD the leader LR of the Senate Bruno Retailleau for whom, "soon, it will be too late".

"What is especially lacking is lucidity and courage, whether it is political Islam, secularism but also immigration," denounces the senator, co-author, with the head of centrist senators Hervé Marseille, of a constitutional bill aimed at respecting national sovereignty, democracy and secularism.

© 2020 AFP