It prohibits so-called “virginity certificates”, provided by some doctors for traditional religious marriages, and demands respect for equality between men and women. Accepting terrorism becomes a crime that can lead to a ban on holding public office.
In the article that generated the most violent debate, and more than 400 proposed amendments, he imposes strict limits on home schooling without prohibiting it, as originally proposed. Educating children at home is seen by the government as a source of “separatism” that undermines French values, as well as a means for conservative Muslim families to prevent girls from what they consider to be corrupt influences.
The bill was originally called an “anti-separatism” law, emphasizing Mr. Macron’s conviction that every citizen must respect “the rules of the Republic because he or she is a citizen before being a believer or unbeliever”. He never mentions Islam or Islam, a source of anger for right-wing parties.
“The target is lost because it has no name,” said Philippe Bas, a Republican senator to Le Figaro. “The target is Islam, which aims to impose its totalitarian right over the law of the Republic”.
The Socialist Party deplored the choice of security measures over broadly expanded social programs to tackle the rise of extremism in the shadowy suburbs, where good schools and job opportunities are scarce.
For the Le Pen National Rally, formerly the National Front, the legislation proved problematic. His handful of deputies abstained in the final vote, having approved some of the articles and deplored others for not having gone far enough. Le Pen is maneuvering to appear more presentable for an election next year when polls suggest she will reach the second round and may even be elected.
Her efforts were not promoted, however, by a poor performance in a debate last week with Gérald Darmanin, the hardline Interior Minister, who caught her getting totally wrong statistics and suggested that she had softened. “You need to start taking vitamins again, you are not strong enough, I think,” he said, as she looked on in painful amazement, after trying a sinuous explanation of why Islam, an ideology she considered hateful, did not it had nothing to do with Islam, the religion with which she had no disputes.