This Thursday, the government, around Jean Castex, clarified how the new constraints announced by Emmanuel Macron will be implemented.

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Jacques Witt / SIPA

  • Jean Castex confirmed on Tuesday that he wanted to “renew” the Observatory of secularism.

  • This public body, attached to the Prime Minister, is regularly attacked by Manuel Valls and supporters of strict secularism.

  • The President of the Observatory, Jean-Louis Bianco, and his rapporteur, Nicolas Cadène, however received the support of several LREM deputies.

After the beheading of Professor Samuel Paty in the Yvelines on Friday, the executive is on all fronts.

Last target in its sights, the Observatory of secularism.

This public body, created in 2007 and composed of parliamentarians, experts and senior officials, reports to the Prime Minister.

Its mission is to assist "the government in its action aimed at respecting the principle of secularism in France".

But Jean Castex has announced today his intention to "renew" the institution.

"The Prime Minister's conviction is that the Observatory of secularism must evolve today because the threat against the Republic has radically changed", one indicates to Matignon.

The body must be “more in tune with the strategy to combat separatism.

Obviously, this conception is not shared by all and the government will draw all the conclusions from it in the coming days ”, we add.

A regularly criticized observatory

For several years, the action of the president of L'Observatoire, former PS Minister Jean-Louis Bianco, and his rapporteur, Nicolas Cadène, has been criticized.

The two men are regularly accused of "laxity" towards religious fundamentalism and of an overly flexible interpretation of the law of 1905 by their detractors, Manuel Valls in the lead.

The former Prime Minister also tackled the public body again Monday on Twitter.

“Prevented, I did not succeed in changing the orientation of the Observatory of secularism and its leaders, guilty of so many renouncements.

I keep alerting: the public authorities cannot rely on this institution to promote secularism.

It's time to act.

"

An observation not necessarily shared by the whole of the majority.

Several La République en Marche deputies publicly supported the leaders of the Observatory, such as Sacha Houlié.

“It is a high-performance system, which offers carefully designed and balanced measures, especially around the school, and contributes to the development of bills.

Its mission makes it possible to target Islamists and not Muslims who have a normal practice of worship, thanks to the good knowledge of its two leaders.

I understand that society is deeply shocked by the attack on Friday, but that should not lead us to put our entire institutional edifice in the attic ”, specifies the LREM deputy from Vienna.

Created in 2007 by President Chirac, @ObservLaicite does a remarkable job, with limited resources despite the challenges.



Transpartisan, linked to the reality on the ground, it is essential.



More than a questioning, it needs to be reinforced!

pic.twitter.com/AR6psIw0tO

- Hugues Renson (@huguesrenson) October 20, 2020

Towards a change of mind?

Jean-Louis Bianco and his team were confirmed by Emmanuel Macron in October 2017. The boss of the Observatory did not fail to greet the “appeased version of secularism” of the Head of State.

But relationships now seem to have changed.

An article in Le

Point

mentioned on Monday the probable ousting of the general rapporteur, Nicolas Cadène.

“He seems more concerned with the fight against the stigmatization of Muslims than with the defense of secularism.

The fact that he appears and discusses with the CCIF * ended up annoying in very high places, ”explained to the weekly a close friend of Minister Marlène Schiappa on condition of anonymity.

Is the fate of the two men already sealed?

In Matignon, it is considered that "it is not simply a question of people", denouncing in passing "settling of scores by way of the press [...] not appropriate".

The entourage of Jean Castex specifies however that "the Prime Minister will receive in the very next days Jean-Louis Bianco, [...] whose mandate expires in April next, to inform him of the decision of the government".

Contacted by

20 Minutes

, Jean-Louis Bianco and Nicolas Cadène did not wish to respond to our requests.

* On November 15, 2015, Jean-Louis Bianco and Nicolas Cadène signed a column entitled “We are united” in Liberation, alongside Samy Debbah, then president of the Collective against Islamophobia in France.

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  • Marlene Schiappa

  • Matignon

  • Secularism