source: https://www.elysee.fr/front/pdf/elysee-module-16114-fr.pdf
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC ON THE THEME OF THE FIGHT AGAINST
SEPARATISMS
2 OCTOBER 2020 - ONLY THE PRONOUNCED IS AUTHORIZED
Ladies and gentlemen ministers, ladies and gentlemen parliamentarians, Mr. Mayor,
François, thank you very much, Mr. President of the Departmental Council, Mr. President of the
urban community, Mr. Prefect, Mr. First President of the Court of Appeal, Mr.
attorney general, madam rector, ladies and gentlemen in your ranks and qualities, ladies and gentlemen
gentlemen.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for welcoming us to Les Mureaux and today both taking action and having
an exchange on a subject so important for our Republic in your city, in your
department, is no accident. You are a land of republican combat and you know how to lead them,
a city of solutions as you are used to saying and a department land of contrasts, but
who has always known how to face these challenges through school, training and work.
The objective of our meeting today is twofold. First, define the reality of our problems
without taboo but without facility either. What is it that today, in our society, endangers
our Republic, our ability to live together, and to inform you of the decisions taken in
consequence which are the result of methodical work carried out for nearly 3 years, and which we have,
in recent weeks, finalized with the Government.
The problem is not secularism. I have recalled it several times, secularism in the French Republic is
the freedom to believe or not to believe, the possibility of exercising one's worship from the moment the order public is assured. Secularism is the neutrality of the State and in no case the erasure of religions in
society in the public space. Secularism is the glue of a united France. If spirituality is
everyone's domain, secularism is everyone's business. And so sincere Republicans should not
never give in to those who, in the name of the principle of secularism, try to arouse divisions,
confrontations based on multiple subjects which, very often, are the essence of our discussions, but
not the gist of the problem. In this matter, we have rules, we must make them respect
firmly and fairly. Everywhere, without concessions. Likewise, let's not let ourselves
be drawn into the trap of the amalgam set by polemicists and extremes which would consist of
stigmatize all Muslims. This trap is the one set for us by the enemies of the Republic,
which would consist in making each citizen of the Muslim faith an objective ally because he would be the victim of a well-organized system. Too easy.
What we need to tackle is Islamist separatism. It is a conscious, theorized project,
politico-religious, which takes the form of repeated deviations from the values of the Republic, which
often translated by the constitution of a counter-society and whose manifestations are the
school drop-outs, the development of community-based sports and cultural practices
which are the pretext for the teaching of principles which do not conform to the laws of
Republic. It is indoctrination and through it the negation of our principles, equality between
women and men, human dignity.
The problem is this ideology, which asserts that its own laws are superior to those of
Republic. And I've said it many times, I don't ask any of our citizens to believe or not to believe,
to believe a little or moderately, it is not the business of the Republic, but I ask everything
citizen, whatever his religion or not, to respect absolutely all the laws of the Republic. And he
There is in this radical Islamism, since it is the heart of the subject, let us approach it and name it, a will
claimed, displayed, a methodical organization to contravene the laws of the Republic and create
a parallel order, erect other values, develop another organization of society, separatist
at first, but whose ultimate goal is to take control, complete this one. And that's what
that we gradually come to reject freedom of expression, freedom of conscience,
right to blasphemy. That insidiously, one leads to radicalization. Nearly 170 people, to
to cite an example, are followed for violent radicalization here, in Yvelines. We come sometimes
until going to jihad. We know that we have 70 young people who have gone to Syria, in the
department and who are often children of the Republic following this drift, even going as far as
take action by trying to shed blood or sometimes until the worst. It is also this way that we
we saw the demonstrations again last Friday, near the premises of Charlie Hebdo.
In this regard, when I mention all of this, I obviously do not forget when and where we are speaking. The moment, that of the trial of the attacks of January 2015, and I have a touched and fraternal thought for the families of the injured, families of victims and their loved ones who lived through the horror in January 2015. And
I want here also, because I do not forget the place, to pay homage to all the victims of terrorism and
in particular to the police commander Jean-Baptiste SALVIN and his companion, Jessica SCHNEIDER,
whose memory is still alive in Les Mureaux.
But saying all this, recalling each of these steps if I may say so, which is not a path
univocal nor inevitable, I want there to be no confusion or amalgamation. None of these
realities should not be crushed one on the other. But it is clear that there is a radical Islamism
which leads to deny the laws of the Republic, which leads to trivialize violence and which has led some
of our citizens, of our children to choose the worst or to consider that the worst had become natural, and therefore to create conditions of political excesses but also of violent excesses, those of terrorism
Islamist. What is our challenge today is to fight against the drift of some in the name of
religion by ensuring that those who want to believe in Islam and are fully
citizens of our Republic. And deep down for years, we have been encumbered by this reality.
Do you mean it right and consider that millions of our citizens live in the Republic
as full citizens and believe in Islam? We tell you: you are naive, you
cover up, you don't look the problem in the face. Do we want to respond to these drifts that I am talking about, y
understood in their most radical forms, we fall into the trap of stigmatizing an entire religion.
The path is the one I have just traced. Isolate the problem, that of radical Islamism, know that
each of these stages can mechanically maintain the other, and therefore not give in to any facility, no
cynicism, say it right and also accept that we are facing a challenge that has taken decades to
constitute in our country and that we will not overthrow it overnight. But it's together that we
must in a republican awakening oppose those who want to separate us.
Much has been written, described, analyzed very deeply about what our country is going through
this regard. I will have the humility not to claim to be a specialist but in a few words, to
share things as I see them. Islam is a religion in crisis today, everywhere
in the world. We do not see that in our country, it is a deep crisis which is linked to
tensions between fundamentalisms, precisely religious and political projects which, we see in
all regions of the world, lead to a very strong hardening, including in countries where
Islam is the majority religion. Look at our friend, Tunisia, to cite just one example. There is
30 years ago, the situation was radically different in the application of this religion, the way of
live and the tensions that we live in our society are present in this one which is undoubtedly
one of the most educated, developed in the region. There is therefore a crisis of Islam, everywhere that is plagued by these radical forms, by these radical temptations and by a desire for a jihad
reinvented, which is the destruction of the other. The territorial caliphate project we fought against
in the Levant, against which we are fighting in the Sahel, but everywhere, more or less insidious forms, the more radical. This crisis affects us by definition too.
To this are added external influences and a methodical organization of political powers,
of private organizations that have pushed for these most radical forms. It must be said that we have
let it happen, at home and abroad. Wahhabism, Salafism, Muslim Brotherhood, many
these forms were at the beginning moreover peaceful for some. They gradually degenerated
in their expression. They have radicalized themselves. They carried messages of rupture,
a political project, a radicalism in the negation for example of equality between women and men, and by external funding, through indoctrination from outside, they reached our
territory in its privacy.
This reality touches us, strikes us. She has grown up in recent years. You have to name it.
To this is added the soil on which everything I have just described has been established. We ourselves
builds our own separatism. It is that of our neighborhoods, it is the ghettoization that our
Republic, initially with the best of intentions, but let it go, that is to say that
we had a policy, it was sometimes called a settlement policy, but we have
builds a concentration of misery and hardship, and we know that very well. We have
concentrated populations often according to their origins, their social backgrounds. We have
concentrated educational and economic difficulties in certain districts of the Republic. We
have ... Despite the efforts of elected officials, prefects of the Republic whose commitment I welcome, we were not able, precisely because of this, to recreate enough diversity, and above all, we did not
managed to go as fast as this phenomenon in terms of educational and social mobility. We created
thus, districts where the promise of the Republic was no longer kept, and therefore districts where
the attraction of these messages, where these most radical forms which were sources of hope, which
brought and which bring, let's be clear, solutions to educate children, to learn
native language, caring for the elderly, providing services, allowing sport.
Basically, what the Republic no longer brought because it was overwhelmed by its own difficulties,
because sometimes it had retreated in terms of public services, these organizations, bearers of this
radical Islam, have methodically replaced it. And so on our setbacks, sometimes our cowardice, they have built their project, methodically there too. This is why the inadequacies of our policy
integration, our struggles against discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism, one
nourishing the other, also gradually favored this development.
nourishing the other, also gradually favored this development.
Added to all this is the fact that we are a country which has a colonial past and which has traumas
that it still has not settled with facts that are foundational in our collective psyche, in our
project, in the way we see ourselves. The Algerian war is part of it and basically everything, all this
period of our history is seen as backwards, because we have never unfolded things
ourselves. And so we see children of the Republic, sometimes from elsewhere, children or grandchildren of citizens today from an immigrant background and come from the Maghreb, from sub-Saharan Africa, revisiting their identity through a post-colonial or anti-colonial discourse. We see children in the Republic who have never known colonization, whose parents have been on our soil and grandparents for a long time, but who fall into the trap, again methodical, of certain others who
use this speech, this form of self-hatred that the Republic should nurture against itself,
but also taboos that we ourselves have maintained and which reflect their origins with
our history, also feed this separatism. I distinguish each of these elements methodically,
but they all blend into the reality of our lives. They all mix, and feed on each other
others. And the political project, by the way, that's why I called it Islamist separatism because
that he sometimes even frees himself from strict religion in a conceived project -; well mix all these
realities, but they are there.
We must therefore face with great determination and force the unacceptable forms and
radical today, in the short term. We must regain all that the Republic has allowed to happen and
which has led part of our youth or our citizens to be attracted to this radical Islam. And he
we must also come back to our own traumas and our own shortcomings in order to
so open this book. And I say it because that's all we have to hold together, if we have one
reductive speech, we will send a simple message to all the youth of the neighborhoods: “We do not
not like you. You have no place in the Republic. Go home. ” If we have a
naive message, we will also let slip a whole part of our Republic which will say to us “They do not
do not know how to tackle the problems of my daily life. I live the consequences: I see the school that
close to my home, the practices, the association, the chanters. ” We need to treat both
all at the same time by unfolding each of the points that I have just mentioned. It's an action that begins
today and it is an action all together that we must carry out and that will take years and
years.
On this subject, we have been acting since the first day with a lot of force, determination on the
field, our officials are hard at work. I will not repeat here everything that has been done since 3
years in the fight against terrorism, but a lot has been done by our
intelligence, by our internal security forces, by our magistrates. Laws passed from the start
of the five-year term, a new organization, better coordinated intelligence services, a
specialized prosecution created, resources granted, 32 attacks foiled. But things got too
transforms accompanying the changes I just mentioned. We had faced terrorism
imported. We have what is called endogenous terrorism whose forms have hybridized and which
is on the borders, for some, of the abuses that come from radical Islam, for others, on the borders of
psychiatry and politico-religious radicalization, sometimes with individuals, we know very isolated,
who can radicalize in a few hours. We must therefore continue with determination, strength.
This is the mission, the commitment of the Minister of the Interior and by his side, of all the officials
with him, it is also the mission of the Keeper of the Seals to continue to thwart, to advance, to
to win back.
Since 2017, we have also stepped up the fight against radicalization, again with clear,
precise, firm. From the end of 2017, anti-radicalization plans involving all
government services were deployed quietly in 15 neighborhoods, in an extremely
confidential, to have the most effective methods with the cooperation of all
the State, magistrates in the field, intelligence services. 212 drinking establishments, 15 places of
worship, 4 schools, 13 associative and cultural establishments were closed, hundreds of controls
realized, millions of euros seized in these districts. The results obtained have led us to
extend this method to the entire territory. The results, we have them, this method has proven
its efficiency. We are extending it and we are now taking it everywhere on French soil. In each
department, cells to fight against Islamism and community withdrawal were set up in the winter
latest. They have already made it possible to ban conferences organized by Islamist movements
radicals, to financially hamper an association diverting its raison d'être to promote
political Islam. Elsewhere, to close an underground school, where 7-year-old girls wore the veil
integral, etc., etc. In total, since January 1, 2020, 400 checks have been carried out, 93 closures
pronounced.
The acts are there, I take them on, the Government with me, they are often better than the words.
We will continue on this point of progress. And I want to emphasize, how much the work that is led by the Government in the fight against narcotics and organized gangs, is a work
twin of it. Because, very often, these networks of radical Islam are financially
organized in connection with narcotics, in connection with an economy that feeds them and organizes, if I may say, the neighborhood's own disorders or its own parallel order. It all fits together, and it's this plan coordinated, determined, which we will continue to lead. We have never been angelic
or naivety. These actions had never been implemented with such a systematic spirit and
such method. Today, therefore, we must not only pursue them, but amplify them.
Our response must be broader, more powerful, respond to the concrete problems observed on the ground.
And the answer goes through public order measures, it also goes through re-engagement measures
of the Republic, and basically, by an overall strategy that I want to set out here, and which, for me,
revolves around five main pillars.
It is a mobilization of the whole nation, this republican awakening that I am evoking. And what we have as well
designed, prepared, matured, it is the result of field observations of our officials, but also of
elected representatives, associations, because we will all have to build it together. At the heart of this strategy, there is
the mobilization of many actors, the empowerment of some, there will also be a law.
The Minister of the Interior and his Minister Delegate will present on December 9 in the Council of
ministers, a bill which, 115 years after the final adoption of the 1905 law, will seek to strengthen the
secularism, to consolidate republican principles. All the ministers here present were strongly
contributors to this text, and I thank them, and will continue to enrich it in the days and weeks
which come as the consultations progress, and will have to lead alongside the Minister and the
minister parliamentary debates.
The first axis of this awakening, of this republican patriotism on this subject that I am calling for, is
first of all a set of measures of public order and public service neutrality, which constitute
immediate, firm responses to observed, known situations that are contrary to our principles. Of
elected officials, sometimes under pressure from groups or communities, have been able to and can consider elected officials, sometimes under pressure from groups or communities, have been able to and can consider to impose confessional menus in the canteen. We have on this subject cases, in
departments such as Seine-Saint-Denis, but also in Normandy. Other elected officials exclude or
plan to exclude men or women from certain swimming pool access slots. It was, by
example, the case in a town not far from here, where women demanded access times
separate from the men at the pool. Once the law is passed, the prefect can suspend the acts
municipalities corresponding to these situations by noting this republican deficiency. And if his decision
was not applied, to replace the local authority with the agreement of the judge. It is both a measure
protection of the neutrality of public services, of what is also the maintenance of order
public. And this is what in certain situations can also protect against such
pressure our elected officials - because for some I do not underestimate the pressure on the ground which can to exist.
We will have on many subjects relating to the medical field, relating to urban planning of
very concrete decisions which will be supported by this law but which also correspond to
situations observed which contravene which to public order, which to equality between women and men and that it is important to regulate with a lot of calm there too, respect, pragmatism.
In many public services provided by companies, in particular public transport
common, we have also seen more and more abuses in recent years. They shock and often
they are observed with a form of helplessness because there is a circumvention of the law. Of
controllers who deny women access to buses because of their dress - to be very clear
because they do not have an outfit that they themselves consider decent; requests for
wearing of ostentatious signs of agents, admittedly private delegates but agents who exercise
services delegated by the municipality, by the department, by the State; and therefore who carry these signs in as part of their missions. Strong radicalization phenomena that are progressing - we have
thus, in recent months, have been led to follow with much more attention more than 80 people
working in the services of Roissy Charles de Gaulle.
All these subjects show that where public service neutrality was clear and established when it is
in the hands of officials, in controlled places, a series of drifts had settled
when the public service was conceded. What this legislation will do in a very
concrete, is that the obligation of neutrality will be applicable to public officials within the framework,
obviously, of their action. But above all, it will be extended to employees of delegated companies this
which was not clearly the case until then. What will allow us in each situation
unacceptable that I mentioned having a clear, firm answer, to avoid these drifts, sometimes these
unacceptable pressures. All these facts that do not conform to our principles, we had to tackle them
and we do it with firmness and conviction. Control, prosecute, sanction. But that's not enough
not.
To radical Islamism, brandished as pride, we must oppose republican patriotism
assumed and go further. The second axis is that which concerns associations. Our associations
are a pillar of our republican pact; extremely important, the Minister of Education
National, Youth and Sports know how much and I believe that all the elected representatives here present and the
prefect know it. Our associations are actors, relays and in our history they have forged outside
time, if I may say so, stricto sensu of the Republic or our republican rites or the time of
school or time spent, they forge a time of life where our values are shared. It is
school or time spent, they forge a time of life where our values are shared. It is
therefore quite logical that those who carry this project of Islamist separatism have invested the
associative field because they identified it as the form, in any case the most efficient space for
disseminate their ideas. Provide services only to lay associations or other associations
respecting the law of the Republic no longer returned, sometimes that the Republic itself did
more and, by this means, to disseminate in a surreptitious manner, or in a very claimed way, a message
of radical Islam. What we see with you, with the media, the prefects, with academics
working on the subject is that a number of associations offering sports, cultural,
artistic, linguistic or other, whose purpose is to support the most vulnerable or
food aid, in fact deploy assumed strategies of indoctrination.
Associations must unite the nation and not fracture it - and we will not give up on this principle which
is at the very heart of the freedom that is associated with the protection of associations in our country and so special status that they occupy in the Republic. The reasons for dissolving associations in
Council of Ministers were until then very limited: limited to acts of terrorism, racism and
anti-Semitism. They will be extended to other grounds such as offenses against the dignity of the
person or psychological or physical pressures.
We have to go all the way. We are therefore going to strengthen controls, put into law the
principles under which it will be permitted to dissolve associations and assume that, under our
republican principles and without waiting for it to be the worst, we can dissolve associations whose
It is established that they carry these messages, that they violate our laws and our principles. Before the
dissolution, there is funding. Any association requesting a grant from the State or from a
local authority will have to sign a contract respecting the values of the Republic and the requirements
minimum of life in society, to use the formula of the Constitutional Council. If the contract is
broken, those responsible will have to repay because it is necessary that public money not be used for
finance the separatists; it is obvious. Many started on this path and elsewhere in
your department, I know that many elected officials have started to sign sports associations
these secular charters. It is a reinforced, common contract that we will offer to all
local authorities as a model, which we will apply, and we have started to do so. The
Minister has done it for all the associations under the Ministry of the City and we are
in the process of deploying it for all associations of the Ministry of Sports because it is a
need. But we want everywhere, states, communities, throughout the territory, to have the same
nature of contracts and requirements and the same rules in terms of compliance with funding - with there also a control which will be allowed on this basis and therefore a financial monitoring and an obligation to refund, as I mentioned.
In total, on our associations, the law thus proposed will strengthen the elements of control,
respect for our republican values, will place additional constraints in terms of clarity of the
respect of our principles on financing and will allow dissolutions, there too, when the
infringements are noted on the principles that I mentioned. It is a necessity, we do it by
respecting freedom of association, with very fine work carried out by the Minister of Justice and the
Minister of the Interior, and I thank them for that. But I also believe that it is through this device that we
can, much more effectively, close unacceptable structures and increase the pressure on
associations which, surreptitiously, derive.
The third pillar of our strategy is school. This one is oh so essential and you see
The third pillar of our strategy is school. This one is oh so essential and you see
that as I advance, I return, so to speak, in the intimacy of our republican life. School is
the republican melting pot. This is what ensures that our children are completely protected from
any religious sign, to religion. It is really the heart of the space of secularism, and it is this place where we let us train consciences so that children become free, rational citizens, able to
choose their life. School is therefore our collective treasure. This is what allows in our society to build this common that is the Republic.
However, there too, we have seen drifts, we see workarounds and we have a fight to
lead. Today, more than 50,000 children are educated at home, a number that is increasing
every year. Every week, principals discover cases of children totally outside
system. Every month, prefects close schools, in quotes because they are not declared
even as such, illegal, often administered by religious extremists. Everywhere on our
territory, the phenomenon we see is simple, parents of students who come to see the principal
or the principal and who say: “the music class is over, otherwise, he won't come back. The
swimming pool with the others, it's over, otherwise, he won't come back ”. Then there are certificates for allergy to chlorine which are given, then repeated absences and finally, school dropout. "We will
register with CNED. It will be very well done. It's easier for us. ” These children do not go to
CNED. Sometimes they don't get any education. But they go to structures that are not
not declared. Last week, we again identified one in Seine-Saint-Denis. Of
very simple structures, walls, almost no windows. Children who arrive at 8 a.m. every day,
who leave at 3 pm, women in niqabs who welcome them. And when questioned,
prayers, certain courses, this is their teaching. It's a reality. We have to watch her, name her
in front.
On this subject, faced with all these excesses which exclude thousands of children from education for citizenship,
access to culture, to our history, to our values, to the experience of otherness which is the heart of the school
Republican, I made a decision, no doubt, and I measure it, and we have debated it a lot with
ministers, undoubtedly one of the most radical since the 1882 laws and those ensuring co-education
between boys and girls in 1969. From the start of the 2021 school year, school instruction will be provided
compulsory for all from 3 years old. Home instruction will be strictly limited, especially to
health imperatives. So we are changing the paradigm, and it is a necessity. Our school, then,
can in no case be the object of foreign interference.
We had seen it, it is the famous system of ElCO, language and culture teaching
of origin, which led to having on our soil, in a contractual framework with the countries of origin,
teachers who sometimes did not master French, who provided education within the framework of
of these ElCOs, I recall that they were the subject of contracts with Algeria, Morocco and Turkey,
teachings which themselves did not conform to the laws of the Republic or to the principles
fundamentals of our programs.
As I announced last winter in Mulhouse, a work was carried out by the Minister of
National Education and the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to precisely put a
this system and ensure that we only have one system, that of EILE, where we can
have an education for example in Arabic, a contract with these States, but where
we have control over the teachers, over the respect of our values and over the abilities
linguistic in French of the latter, that is to say a real control of the National Education
on the quality of teachers and teaching. It is a reality today. We are currently
to complete the final terms of the negotiations. But after close negotiations with the
to complete the final terms of the negotiations. But after close negotiations with the
three countries that I mentioned, so we are putting an end to the ELCOs. It's not just a project that
had sometimes been in the past agitated, discussed; it's a reality.
Then, because the school must first inculcate the values of the Republic and not those of a religion,
to train citizens not of the faithful, schools without contract, which are more controlled thanks to the
the great advance represented by the so-called Gatel law, will be subject to even greater supervision.
I say it very clearly here, the freedom of education is important in our Republic and it does not
In no way is it a question of calling it into question, of awakening passions that our country has known and
that would be counterproductive. And I think that there too, there should be no amalgamation. Freedom
teaching, we know how to live with it, we have organized ourselves and things are going well.
But on the course of the staff, the educational content of the lessons, the origin of
funding, it is legitimate for the State to strengthen controls. We've all been through these
recent months to cases of high schools, colleges which sometimes were financed by the State, by the regions and on which we did not have full visibility because the law did not allow it. We are
wake up when the scandal happens, which is the worst thing. And so what was decided is to endow
the ministry, precisely, of the ways and means of controlling each of these subjects, of being able to
administrative closures when they are necessary and they must be assumed while respecting the
freedom of education and without creating unnecessary passions.
The Republic was built around the school, which trains more than individuals, which raises
citizens, which shapes free spirits. This is why, I am convinced, the Republic will resist by
school to those who want to fight or divide it, and it is through school that we will allow all our
children to access knowledge, culture, republican civility and therefore to become fully
citizens.
This project, you can see, is extremely ambitious. It has been the subject of a very great job and I want
I really thank the ministers for it, and for me he is an essential pillar of this strategy, positive but
determined.
The fourth axis of the strategy that we intend to lead, from this republican awakening, it consists in
finally build an Islam in France that can be an Islam of the Enlightenment. I am always careful on these
formulas, we had a lot of them. We could speak of an Islam of France. I don't want to get into
semantic debates because I found that when I introduced them, I then fed
lots of comments. So I don't think it takes some form of Gallican Islam, no. But he
we must help this religion in our country to structure itself to be a partner of the Republic
in terms of the things we have to share. And this is normal. The other religions have
structured in this way, first of all because it is their history, sometimes, I would say, their very structure, and we have learned to live together. But here too, we owe ourselves lucidity.
When the law of 1905 was passed, Islam was not such a religion in our country. And she
has developed a lot in recent years also through migratory waves which are rather
those of the 20th century. And so, we are faced with a reality whose organization does not correspond
to our own methods, to our own means. Our interlocutors, today, do not assume
a real religious responsibility. And so, it is very difficult for the minister in charge of worship,
prefects, mayors, to know who they are talking to when they want to be able to discuss the subjects that
of worship and have an impact on our life in society and sometimes on public order. Because the cult is not there not so organized.
We've been working hard on this subject for 3 years. I've chatted with just about every
specialists, actors, the different management teams of CFCM. I was able at one point to think about a
way, that of a concordataire approach, but I think that it was unsuited to the time that we
let's live. It would have created breaks with other religions, its legal framework would have been very fragile,
and I think it would undoubtedly have given rise to counterproductive reflections. You go you
occupy, you State, to organize Islam, it is thus you who will finance such and such thing with
taxpayer money? I let you imagine what we would have gone into, given the passion of
irrational debates that we sometimes have.
This is why we have undertaken a work of structuring and also of shared responsibilities. There is
is now a little over two years old, the Ministry of the Interior has asked each prefect in the
departments to identify interlocutors of Islam. What today was not really done,
as you know, it is rather the CRCMs that exist. This work was done and allowed to identify in
each department, or in certain territories interdepartmentally, the interlocutors,
therefore to structure a dialogue. And we carried out real work, real reflection with the Council
French of Muslim worship. And it is this path that we are going to open together. That is to say, try
together to build an organization that will allow us, I hope, I believe, to build an Islam
Enlightenment in our country. That is to say, an Islam that can be at peace with the Republic, in
respecting all the rules of separation and allowing all voices to be appeased. It is not the
state work to structure Islam. But we must, we, allow, accompany this
emergence, and that is what this dialogue, all this preparation has enabled us to do.
First, and this is the first point in the matter, by freeing Islam in France from foreign influences.
On this subject, we are going to do it in two ways, because there are two types of influences. There is a
influence which is visible, which is assumed, and there is an influence which is sometimes deeper and
dangerous, but which is less visible and less assumed.
The first influence that we have decided to reduce, in consultation with the countries, is the organization even of consular Islam. You know, we are a country where we organize the training of
imams in foreign countries, but also that of chanting chanters that we brought
regular. It is Turkey, Morocco and Algeria which supplied these imams and these chanting changers. We have decided to put an end to this system, in a completely peaceful way with the countries of origin. And in
transition, that is to say over 4 years on average, because things have to be done
gradually because, I will come back to this, we ourselves will train our imams and our
chanting, Muslims in France. And so, we have to detach this link which is the one we
name of consular Islam. Because it feeds rivalries, dysfunctions but above all, it
continues to carry this post-colonial superego that I mentioned elsewhere, with a lot
ambiguities and it does not allow the structuring of this religion in our country to advance as it
should. And I say this in a very peaceful way and in agreement with both the CFCM and the 3 countries that
should. And I say this in a very peaceful way and in agreement with both the CFCM and the 3 countries that
I was talking about. And so, we put an end to this link and this foreign influence.
The other influence, more pernicious, more serious, is that of financing. Until now we had
an ambiguity. Many structures went through the law of 1901 to finance activities
cult and with a lot of opacity. Structures that we saw arriving, we saw so many arrive
on our territories which we discovered had been financed by such and such a foundation, sometimes such
Foreign state, such interests, without much transparency. Mosques will thus be encouraged to leave
of the associative form to switch to the regime provided for by the law of 1905, both more advantageous
fiscally and more controlled in terms of funding from abroad. But beyond
of this, all who continued to choose the 1901 path would see greater control
drastically in terms of the source of funding, the control of this source and transparency on
funds.
What are we going to do to speak in simple terms, for those who know these questions
? We will reply for all the religious associations which have registered within the framework of the
1901 law, the constraints that existed under the 1905 law, without the tax advantages of
the law of 1905. Normally, it is an incentive rather to go towards 1905. But above all, it is the end of a
opacity system. It is not a question of prohibiting funding from abroad. It is simply
to frame them, to make them transparent, to control them. It is an essential element, there too, for
liberate Islam in France from foreign influences which are rarely for the better and like us
have seen it, most often for the worse. And it's really about getting back to the spirit and the letter
of the law of 1905, basically that these circumvents and decades of carelessness have watered down in the
convenient. What we are actually going to do for all places of worship is therefore to strengthen the controls
in terms of funding and also on the associations that carry them, strengthen as I said
earlier in the second axis, our control over the nature of what is said, the actions that are there
carried out and respect for the values of the Republic among all those who wear and make them
live.
Then, the desire to protect those in charge of mosques from putschs and takeovers
hostile by extremists, is a very important element of this structuring. Today on
our territory, what we see and I know that the elected representatives here have observed it themselves and
sometimes experienced, it is basically the hostile takeovers that exist in mosques to
suddenly going to change the leaders of the worship association in a few days. And we
wakes up, in a few days we see radical Islamists taking advantage of the weaknesses in the statutes
to take control of the association, all its funding and lead the worst policies. This
will not happen again. What we are going to install very clearly is an anti-coup system, very robust,
in the law, which will prevent those protagonists who are the most subtle, the most sophisticated,
do not use the weaknesses of our own rules to come and take control of religious associations
and mosques to go and preach the worst, organize the worst, often to lead elsewhere within the framework of
the cultic association of activities which are not at all, which are beginning to become political, etc.
etc.
Finally the ambition to train and promote in France a generation of imams but also of intellectuals
who defend an Islam fully compatible with the values of the Republic is a necessity.
Islam is a religion that exists in France. I know many don't want to see it and think that
it would be an effective way to fight radical Islam. I think it's stupid. First
it would be an effective way to fight radical Islam. I think it's stupid. First
because denying the real is never a good way and then because, as I told you
the hour, I think that's the greatest gift we could give to those who want to rock the
Republic. But we must, as I said, go to the end of this structuring.
And so what we have agreed with the French Council for Muslim Worship is that by 6
months at the latest this one would finalize a work largely started for several months and
essential. A work which consists firstly in labeling imam training in our country.
Second, to assume a religious responsibility which will be that of the certification of imams.
Third, to write a charter whose non-observance will result in the dismissal of imams. The
structuring of the hajj pilgrimage will provide the necessary funding. We drove a
very big work with Saudi Arabia to regulate it and there too work was carried out by the
CFCM, through the MIF, precisely to build a solution that will thus provide funding and
structure these trainings.
What I am describing to you there, it is not the State that will do it, by virtue of the principle of separation, it will be
at the French Council for Muslim Worship. But I trust him and it's a huge responsibility
that we entrust to him. But at the same time, I told them with the minister two days ago, it's a
immense pressure that we are going to exert on them, because we have no right to fail. I
thinks this is what we need today.
Regarding the intellectual, secular dimension, the State must also get involved. Engage and support
which, in our country, should allow us to bring out a better understanding of Islam and
also a better intellectual and academic training which of the religious, but all our fellow citizens
who are interested in this religion, this civilization to know each other better too
because it is an issue for ourselves. To this end, we will support up to 10 million
euros for initiatives to be taken by the Fondation pour l'islam de France in the field of culture,
history and science. I am thinking in particular of the development of high-level Islamic studies at
university. I also decide that we are going to create a Scientific Institute of Islamology, and for the benefit
of the Law on Higher Education and Research, we will create additional positions in
higher education in order, here too, to continue work, sometimes to resume it, in terms of
research on Muslim civilization but also on the Maghreb, the Mediterranean basin, Africa.
Many of those subjects where France excelled academically have been weakened and we have them.
abandoned. And in doing so, we have left the intellectual debate to others, to those outside the
Republic by ideologizing it, but sometimes to other academic traditions. I think of tradition
Anglo-Saxon which has another history and which is not ours. And when I see today some
theories in social sciences totally imported from the United States of America with their problems,
that I respect and which exist, but which are added to ours, I tell myself that we are
unreasonable not to make that choice. And so we have to reinvest, we, very clearly, the field
social sciences, history, knowledge of civilizations, massively by creating
posts, by developing dialogue and academic and scientific controversy so as not to leave
knowledge, understanding of Islam as a religion, of the civilization it carries, of its
contribution also to our country and our continent to ideological debates and exclusively
policies.
We will also carry out this task with great method and determination. I want France
become that country where we can teach the thought of AVERROES, of IBN KHALDUN, that we can
to be a country of excellence in the study of Muslim civilizations. We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to this fight that I mentioned. Because there will be no success of the project
that I mentioned a while ago if we don't know better, if we don't understand
better the civilizations which in fact coexist on our soil taking into account what the people are today
French.
We also need, and the Minister of National Education, on several occasions, has committed to this point,
teach more the Arabic language at school or in an extracurricular that we master. Because our
youth is also rich in this plural culture and it is necessary on this subject, to get out of the hypocrisy in
who we are. When we do not teach it at school or in an extracurricular which is
compatible with the laws of the Republic, we accept that there are more than 60,000 young people today
who will learn it in associations which propose to them for the worst and which are manipulated by
those I mentioned. And so Arabic, but also many other languages which are the very wealth
of our children, of their families, we must know in our Republic both recognize them
but to exalt them, to bring them to life within the republican framework. In an extraordinarily uninhibited way,
simply in a manner again consistent with our principles, but recognizing our wealth.
So let's get out of hypocrisy, let's not delegate this teaching and within two years, our will with
the minister is to have a real policy of knowledge of languages and civilizations also in
school, with teachers and with speakers who are linguistically certified and of whom we
know that they respect the values of the Republic.
Finally, and this is the fifth axis on which I wanted to emphasize. If the Republic must be feared by
applying its rules without weakness and restoring force to the law, if it is necessary to reconquer on axes
essential that I have mentioned, we must also make it loved again by showing that it can allow
each to build his life. Basically, we have a duty to hope. And I say it very simply in the
debate that is ours, because there is also a form of insecurity that has set in, that some have
qualified as cultural insecurity, I believe rightly, because our society is crippled by fractures,
unspoken that we let settle. We would like to believe that we can solve all problems by
by decrees and by laws.
Our Republic achieved something extraordinary at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, she succeeded because she conquered, she installed a republican order, she succeeded by school,
she succeeded by her public services, by justice but she succeeded because she made people love
Republic, because for lots of children, the Republic has given a future. And wherever the
Republic no longer gives a future, do not wait for these children to love it, unfortunately. And it doesn't
love cannot be decreed. Hope cannot be legislated. It shows.
And so the work that we have started with great vigor, here I want to pay tribute to him,
it is the one that we must intensify. This implies in effect re-entering the Republic into the
concrete lives. And there, we need to do it with all the officials, with all the elected officials, with
determination and I know you are his fighters. And what's very hard is like a lot
sometimes ground was lost, everything that has been done in recent years that we have all done together,
not necessarily see enough, it has an ungrateful character, but here I want to repeat it forcefully: the
doubling of classes for 300,000 pupils, it is from the Republic to the concrete for children who
doubling of classes for 300,000 pupils, it is from the Republic to the concrete for children who
will be able to learn to read, write, count, be educated in the most difficult areas. This is
a reality. The reforms of the orientation of support, everything that we have done on extra-curricular time, homework done, etc., summer quarters this summer, with what we have called the learning and cultural summer and athletic.
It is an essential reconquest, it is concrete for these children that we did not leave in the hand
associations that want the end of the Republic. This work is essential and we will continue it.
The opening of 80 educational housing estates, the labeling of 530 France Services houses, in the
cultural, extension of library opening hours for more than 600 municipalities, creation,
as here in Les Mureaux, nearly 100 Micro-follies. It is a series of initiatives, of battle, of ground,
if I may say so, that we have all led together in recent years to go and win back and say:
Republic must return. But it is true in all components. When we decided 10 billion
additional funds for the ANRU, go to reconquer, reopen neighborhoods, give funding to
associations in the field, decide, as we did this year, to give funds to justice for
allow local justice in these France Services houses, but also by providing
very concrete means so that the response of our justice also corresponds to the means that
side of our security.
It is the Republic which returns and which takes again a direction what one did with the districts of reconquest
Republican, with the daily security police. What the minister is deploying, there too
to restore resources. What we do when we fight against gender inequality on the
ground by restoring resources to associations, but also allowing the Republic to
come back with resources and structures. This is the policy we are pursuing. And so, it all happened
deployed for 3 years with strong determination, with many proposals that have been brought by
the ministers who were also carried by Jean-Louis BORLOO, whose work I want to salute,
involvement and ideas. And when I look at the report that was given to us, more than three quarters
have been implemented. We can congratulate ourselves on that. And I think all of these energies, we need them.
And so, what we need to do today is to go further. We will do it with the duplication
classes currently extended to large section pupils. 40 additional educational estates
that will be created, 300 additional France Services houses that will open in the next
weeks, an additional investment in the ANRU. On security and justice,
additional concrete investments with magistrates, clerks, judges,
sometimes also volunteers who will come to help in local tasks, as you have
developed Mr. Mayor, with also police officers, gendarmes on the ground and resources
additional.
Our horizon is simple: it is to ensure a republican presence at the bottom of each tower, at the bottom of
each building. Where we had retreated we must come back. Where the Republic's response was
more intelligible because it took months and months to respond to crimes, we must give back
sense collectively by allowing our justice system to find the means to respond quickly, in a
adapted as it does so that everything finds meaning, for the victim as well as for the
disorder as for our security forces.
We all love the Republic deep down when it keeps its promises of emancipation. Everything I
just mentioned this is what guarantees this promise of emancipation. The Republic is both a
order and a promise. And so what we have to do with a lot of force is to go further on
this way.
I have started to identify tracks for equal opportunities, we will pursue them in this matter,
in the fight against discrimination, in terms of employment and housing with new tests
that have been decided, in the systematization of the summer quarters that I mentioned that we will
to perpetuate and to ensure that everyone, whatever their skin color, origin, religion,
can find its place. Neither racism nor anti-Semitism is compatible with the Republic. This is
why, within the framework of this strategy, we must also have the ambition to go much more
far than what we started to do. I will present in the fall of news
decisions in the matter and they will be declined again in each department by the prefects in
associating all the elect, but with deep and simple things.
In terms of housing, we must finally radically change our texts. We can not
continue to add poverty to poverty. Until we stop this we will continue
the educational and training difficulties and the problems I mentioned. This text must bear a
profound reform of our organization in terms of housing, in particular social housing. Of the
in the same way, we must carry, assume the share of the recovery that will go to these districts of the
Republic. There must be part of this recovery plan that allows cultural emancipation,
economic, ecological of our neighborhoods.
Let's stop treating part of our youth or our citizens as consumables, or at least
fund of simple recipients of public policies. They want to do. They want excellence. They
want to be given the chance to succeed. And so in this France Relance plan, there must be and there
aura, I will have the opportunity to present them in the coming weeks, there too, changes
deep to allow our neighborhoods and our neighborhoods the most in difficulty to carry out the projects
educational, cultural, entrepreneurial that are desired and to succeed in the transition, both digital
and environmental. Here too, these transitions must be carried out. Here too we must help
succeed.
Ladies and gentlemen, you will have understood it, through these 5 main axes that I wanted to evoke this
morning, it is a whole strategy of mobilizing the nation for a republican awakening. So I have
aware that I may have disappointed those who expected caricatures one way or the other. I
assume it and I will continue to assume it.
This Republican awakening, it cannot be the work of a few. We do not administer consciences.
We govern a country, we hire citizens. And so this awakening is that of political leaders
that we are, prefects, police officers, gendarmes, teachers, civil servants,
elected officials, associations, magistrates. Of all those who, on a daily basis, have to bring this
promise. They did not wait for me to make the observations that I mentioned, but we want
today give them the means to do and a clarified framework and also the means accordingly
to be able to act.
This awakening is that of all citizens, it is that of a France united around its values. More our
enemies will seek to oppose us, the more we are gathered. The more they will look to us
destroy, the more we will unite. The more they try to shake our values, the more we will be
uncompromising, uncompromising, because it is our story, but uncompromising because
that this intransigence corresponds to the republican benevolence that I mentioned. But I tell you
with great conviction, there is at the bottom, behind this existential question for our nation, to
relearn the reasons we have to live together.
Every day, every day, everyone wants to put forward the good reasons for us
to divide. We are not a society of individuals. We are a nation of citizens. This
change everything. We learn to be a citizen, we become one. These are rights and duties. But I do not
give nothing to those who want to divide us one way or the other, because I believe that our
most beautiful treasure, it is this block that we form. It is one and plural, let us never forget it. This is it
strength of our republic. Plural, that does not mean that we would be an agglomerate of communities.
It is because we are a national community. But this national community has 66 million
of stories. And something which is each time greater than each individual, which makes one
individual becomes a citizen. Its adherence to the universal Republican, that is what we must defend.
The Government will take its responsibilities by finishing the work on this law. I know that
all those who serve the state will do so. I know that our elected officials will be there and I
know that all our citizens will take this part.
Long live the Republic and long live France! I will now answer your questions.
