The second round polarizes the positions.
Traveling in the Grand Est on Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron offered himself a late walkabout in Strasbourg, on the sidelines of the meeting he held there at the end of the day.
A stroll that led him to meet a veiled woman, claiming to be a "
feminist
" and "
for gender equality
".
After having voluntarily ensured, in front of "
the cameras
", that his interlocutor wore Islamic clothing "
totally by choice
", the president-candidate saw fit to greet: "
What is beautiful, (...) (it 's
is to have a young girl who wears the veil (...) and who says 'are you a feminist?'... That's the best answer to all the nonsense I hear
”.
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A way for him to distinguish himself from "
Madame Le Pen, who says 'the veil will be banned in the public square with me'
".
And to denounce in doing so the proposal of his opponent RN, who wishes to ban the wearing of any ostentatious religious sign in the public space if she were elected on April 24.
Immediately denounced by the nationalist camp - ex-RN MEP Gilbert Collard, who now supports Éric Zemmour, saw it as a "
terrible moment
" - this exit from the outgoing head of state contrasts somewhat with some of his past positions. on the subject.
Guest of BFMTV / RMC and Médiapart four years ago to the day, mid-April 2018, the tenant of the Elysée had certainly said "
tolerate
" the veil and "
respect
" those who wear it, on condition "
of a thing
": that they do it "
by choice
".
But he had immediately recognized that this garment “
insecures
” the country because it is “
not in conformity with the civility
” of French society, nor “
with the relationship between men and women
”.
Rather than seeing it as a “
beautiful
” symbol, he said at the time that he was “
not particularly happy
” that this practice was spreading.