Macron Rejects Call for Ethnic Statistics Debate in France

This statement by the French president follows the publication of an op-ed on Saturday in Le Monde by government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye. According to her, ethnic statistics - currently prohibited in France - would help fight a "form of unconscious racism". These statistics "would ultimately help reconcile sometimes two sides of our society that are eternally at odds, those who tell you: ’Blacks and Arabs, colored people have no access to anything’ and those who tell you: ’The problem does not arise,’" she says on France inter.

Except that many ministers do not approve of her proposal. "I remain opposed to ethnic statistics which do not correspond to French universalism, to the fact that a Frenchman is a Frenchman and that I do not look at his race, his origin, his religion, and that I do not wish to look at it," comments the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire on franceinfo.

"I would rather be in favor of Julien Denormandie’s (Minister of the City and Housing) proposal, which mentioned statistics by geography," hinted the Minister of Public Accounts, Gérald Darmanin on BFMTV, since "when you come from a difficult neighborhood, by your address, whatever your skin color, it is more difficult to find an internship (...)".

The position of the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights remains the same. On Sunday, it reiterated its opposition to ethnic statistics, which are "not neutral tools". For it, if the French state were to recognize ethnic or racial categories, it could "essentialize" them.