Special envoy to Mulhouse
The head of state will have phosphorus a lot before starting to draw the outlines of his action plan for a "return of the Republic" . He has been consulting intellectuals privately for months and hosting meetings. He has been postponing the opportunity to talk about it for months. “I took a lot of precautions. I did not want to simplify ” , justified himself, Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron in front of association leaders, in the popular district of Bourtzwiller of Mulhouse. This time, the time has come.
The choice of place owes nothing to chance. The city of Bas-Rhin is a cosmopolitan metropolis where the facts of communitarianism are more and more palpable. "There are schoolchildren who do not want to shake hands with their comrades and families who present medical certificates of convenience so that their children do not go to the pool," reports to President Anne-Marie Maire, the director of the academy, who spoke during this round table.
One must never accept that the laws of religion can be superior to those of the Republic ", nor" accept the dropout for facts of belief
Emmanuel MacronAfter listening to a series of testimonies, the head of state raised his voice at a press conference. "Our enemy is separatism" , this scourge that pushes some French people to build "walls" with the rest of the population, thunder Emmanuel Macron. Which adds: "We must never accept that the laws of religion can be superior to those of the Republic" , nor "accept deschooling for acts of belief" . Emmanuel Macron claims to be cutting edge: "Islamist separatism is incompatible with the indivisibility of the Republic."
On the other hand, there is no longer any question of condemning "communitarianism" as such. On this aspect, the president has matured his thinking and developed his vocabulary. "I am not comfortable with the word communitarianism," now explains the president. " These memberships are added to the Republic, they are compatible with them," he says.
Closed meeting
"You can feel multiple identities if you respect the laws of the Republic," he also argued during an exchange, a little earlier, with residents, near a police station. So much for the theory. But how do you reclaim the lost ground? How, moreover, to respond to the accusations of the opposition, which, like President LR of Pays de la Loire, Bruno Retailleau, accuse the Head of State of confining himself to "speeches" ?
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In response, Emmanuel Macron promises to end the system of "detached imams" , including these 300 imams "sent to France every year" . Instead, the executive advocates for imams who are fluent in French and trained in France. He also promises the end of the Elco system in September 2020. These lessons in language and culture, led by teachers sent by foreign countries, notably Turkey. The closure of schools and places of worship in contravention of the law will continue, adds the head of state.
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Finally, he assures that everything will be done to "better control the funding of places of worship" . "We need to know where the money comes from, who gets it and what for?" , launches the president, without specifying the methods of investigation. In Mulhouse, in any case, the subject is particularly sensitive, in an agglomeration marked by the construction of a giant mosque (An-Nour). The site is largely funded by Qatari funds. In the morning, a meeting was held behind closed doors, between the heads of the city's mosques and three ministers, including Christophe Castaner, the Minister of the Interior, also in charge of worship. To avoid any trial in "stigma" , Emmanuel Macron took care to insist that it was not "a plan against Islam" , which would be "a deep fault" . His opponent is called "political Islam" . And to swear: "I will not yield anything in this battle."
The measures announced by the Head of State
Up to now, in France, in vocational schools, colleges or lycées, 80,000 pupils have learned the language of their country of origin via a system called Elco (teaching language and culture of origin). Since 1977, bilateral agreements had been signed with certain countries such as Turkey, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco or Croatia. For the president, this education was, in recent years, more and more often provided by teachers sent by their country who did not speak French and whose National Education could not control the content of education. No relationship was possible between them and the national teaching staff. An unacceptable situation for the president who mainly targets teachers from Turkey.
He wanted to abolish this system altogether. And built another. From September 2020, the Elco will disappear. Another mechanism - international teaching in a foreign language (EIL) - will emerge with teachers who will now speak French systematically and whose work we can verify. All countries have accepted the reform. Except Turkey, to date. In the absence of agreement, France will provide education itself.
Another decision: Emmanuel Macron announced that our country would gradually stop welcoming "seconded imams" sent by other countries, such as Turkey and Algeria, while increasing the number of imams trained in France. The head of state also announced that the reception of the 300 or so "chanters" received each year during the Ramadan period will be ended.
