Paris (AFP)

The government installs Tuesday and until the summer of "States General of secularism" with the objectives of reaching the youth and to have a peaceful debate on this sensitive subject, but hardly announced, they have already been widely criticized as a media stunt.

Marlène Schiappa, Minister Delegate for Citizenship, launches them Tuesday morning with a "high-level conference" at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (Cnam) in Paris, in which notably the essayist Caroline Fourest and the philosophers Henri Pena Ruiz participate and Gaspard Koenig.

Academician Barbara Cassin or lawyer Richard Malka will join the proceedings later.

Because until the summer, will be held "round tables and working groups on freedom of expression, research, youth, civic integration," said Ms. Schiappa in Le Journal du dimanche.

"White cards" will also be entrusted to associations, such as the Licra.

A "major consultation" will also be launched "with 50,000 young people, accessible at the address laïcité.make.org

"It's a subject of passion. The idea is to say: let's talk about it together and listen to each other", defended Ms. Schiappa.

The sensitive issue of French-style secularism regularly opposes two camps.

The supporters of respect for religious freedom as long as it does not disturb public order, on the one hand;

the proponents of a further limitation of religious freedom, in particular the wearing of religious symbols such as the veil, on the other hand.

Among the latter, competition is fierce between ministers storming proposals, such as Gerald Darmanin at the Interior, for whom secularism must be the "remedy" to cure a country "sick" of Islamist separatism.

But also the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer, who told Le Monde that he wanted to launch a think tank on secularism in view of the presidential election of 2022.

Marlène Schiappa, minister under the supervision of Mr. Darmanin, occupies the field and makes proposals to replace the Observatory of secularism.

This body chaired for eight years by the former socialist minister Jean-Louis Bianco, is accused by certain politicians or members of the Republican Spring of having been too lax against Islamism.

Matignon must announce in the coming weeks the new device which will succeed the Observatory.

- "Media unrest" -

Barely announced, these States General were already under fire from critics.

"We do not have a debate after a law", denounced Monday on France Info the MEP EELV Yannick Jadot, in reference to the bill fighting against "separatism" adopted at first reading last week by the Senate and wanted as a marker of the Macron five-year term.

While Marlène Schiappa announced wanting "to get out of the pincers between on the one hand the far-right identitarians and on the other the indigenous people and Europe Ecology-The Greens", the elected ecologist asked on Twitter that "the insults "from the minister.

"Marlène Schiappa launches the States General of secularism after her government has made it a tool for stigmatizing Muslims" with the "separatism" law, also said Senator (EELV) Esther Benbassa.

The CFDT asked to "stop making secularism an object of permanent media unrest".

Laurent Berger's union, invited by the minister, told him that "this kind of initiative was poorly chosen while the law" against separatism "is still in the pipeline (and poses many problems)".

"We are preparing the ground to replace the Observatory of Secularism, which was doing an excellent job (...) by a new body in the pay of the government," said Aurélien Taché, former LREM deputy, presenting these States General as "a grotesque communication operation".

Asked by AFP, the president of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra), Mario Stasi, who will participate, has placed himself on the ground of appeasement.

"If the debate shifts from this spillway of hatred, of invective that are social networks, towards in-depth work putting side by side different approaches to secularism" and allowing "to come out with concrete proposals in respect of the law 1905, if that is the Estates General, I only see advantages, ”Mr. Stasi said.

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