Paris (AFP)

The deputies began Monday the examination in committee of the 51 articles of the bill against separatism which aims to fight against radical Islamism, with the key to a controversy fueled by furious opposition to the number of amendments deemed inadmissible.

"Everyone will want to make the text a political marker," summed up an LREM deputy.

Things didn't drag on.

Even before the opening of the debates, left and right began to artill the majority and the presidency of the special commission headed by the former president of the National Assembly and former minister François de Rugy accused of "muzzling the opposition" and "to cover up the debate".

For the leader of the deputies LR Damien Abad, the high number of amendments rejected as "inadmissible" because considered irrelevant under article 45 of the Constitution, is a "denial of democracy".

LFI Alexis Corbière denounced the "authoritarian method of LREM".

A total of 1,878 amendments had been tabled on this bill "reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic", in committee all week, before the debates in the hemicycle from February 1.

286 were retoque.

"Unfounded procedural controversies", swept François de Rugy.

"This is a classic proportion for texts of importance", he noted.

"We engage in a debate which is truncated in advance", tackled the deputy LR Eric Ciotti with in sight the question of the veil that an amendment of the N.2 bis of the group LREM Aurore Bergé, aimed to prohibit for the small girls.

The proposal of the MP for Yvelines and her colleague Jean-Baptiste Moreau had been very badly received internally where the prospect of introducing such a controversy was perceived as the surest way to derail the debate.

The amendment which was welcomed by the right and the far right was rejected under article 45. No "waves in the majority", laughed the LR deputies.

However, on a text which aims to stem political Islamism but also affects pillars such as the law of 1905 on the separation of Churches and State or the freedoms of association, education or expression, most political groups are not moving forward as a tight block.

- Veiled school guides -

What did not fail to point out the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin: "do you all think the same thing within the LR group on home instruction?"

Among a battery of measures such as the fight against online hatred, the reform of the financing of cults or virginity certificates, the bill plans to restrict "family education".

The minister had taken his place in the "mini hemicycle" of the Lamartine room, alongside Marlène Schiappa, Jean-Michel Blanquer and Eric Dupont-Moretti.

"The Republic is under attack, it is normal for it to defend itself," said Mr. Darmanin.

"It is attacked by the breeding ground of terrorism, (…) separatism. Among them, the first, the most dangerous, the one that we must fight here and now is that of Islamist separatism".

LR and LFI did not fail to issue a severe indictment on this text accused of not doing enough in the fight against Islamism for the right, or of being "discriminatory" against Muslims for "rebellious".

Socialist Cécile Untermaier regretted a debate time scheduled at 40 hours and the accelerated procedure which will limit the examination of the text to one reading per chamber.

"It is a repressive text which should have been balanced by an educational and social component", pleaded Charles de Courson (Freedoms and Territories) in a criticism sometimes taken up into the ranks of the majority.

Monday until one o'clock in the morning, the deputies began the discussions around the neutrality of the public service.

In particular, they adopted an amendment by LR Xavier Breton specifying that employees of a public service should refrain from "expressing their political or religious opinions".

The veil, that of some school accompanists, nevertheless ended up inviting itself as a backdrop to the discussion around an amendment by LREM François Cormier-Bouligeon often presented as a supporter of a secularism of combat.

Supported by LR, the deputy's proposal provided for extending the obligation of neutrality to occasional employees of an administrative public service.

She was rejected.

© 2021 AFP