French Senate President Calls on Macron to Address Secularism Amid Religious Tensions

In a statement on France 2, Gérard Larcher said that secularism is an issue that has not really been settled by politics, which is why he thinks it is necessary to return to the fundamentals of the 1905 law.

In this sense, "we are waiting for the word of the President of the Republic on this subject, which he has postponed many times," he wished.

Even if it is a difficult subject, Gérard Larcher considers it also an essential subject, "where we are waiting for a President of the Republic who unites, who ensures that our compatriots of Muslim religion or origin feel as much a part of the Republic as the atheists, Catholics or Jews."

For the President of the Senate, the wearing of the veil is a subject of neutrality in public schools that must be addressed without hatred or weakness.

"A mother can wear the veil but when she is a school auxiliary, she must comply with the rules of the school. This is true for a veiled mother as for a mother of another faith," he nuanced.