The ban on the veil in public space, present in Marine Le Pen's initial project, is no longer her priority in the fight against Islamism, several lieutenants of the far-right candidate said on Sunday.
Marine Le Pen admitted on Saturday that the veil is a "complex problem", that she is "not obtuse" and that her controversial measure to ban the veil in the street will be debated in the National Assembly.
Asked about this inflection, his spokesman Sébastien Chenu clarified on BFMTV on Sunday that in the fight against Islamism, the ban on the veil in public space "comes after the closure of Salafist mosques, the ban on Salafism, and the cutting off of “Islamist” funding.
“When we have closed the Salafist mosques, cut all funding, banned Salafism, believe me we will have brought down 90% of Islamist veils,” he insisted.
Sébastien Chenu declared that the RN candidate, if she were elected president next Sunday, would entrust Parliament with the task of specifying the contours of a limitation of the veil: “Parliament will take up this question and provide practical answers so that effectively the 70-year-old grandmother who has been wearing her small veil for years is not concerned, because she is not the target.
The target is the Islamists”.
Sébastien Chenu: "Our goal is not to fight against women, it is to protect and free those on whom the veil is imposed" pic.twitter.com/0B3diP8CVv
– BFM Politics (@BFMPolitique) April 17, 2022
Protect “those who are under family pressure”
The vice-president of the RN Jordan Bardella for his part declared, on France inter - Franceinfo - Le Monde that the veil "will be prohibited in all public buildings, the administration, and obviously we will give business leaders the possibility of prohibiting politico-religious claims.
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The ban is a "term objective", he added, making the distinction between "the veil for French women who arrived from immigration in the 60s and 70s" and "the veil that has become today an instrument of pressure from Islamic fundamentalists and a challenge to equality between men and women”.
The RN mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot assures in the "Grand jury" (LCI-RTL-Le Figaro) that "if we put pressure on radical Islamism, there will be fewer veiled women in the streets".
He added that the spirit of the law would be to protect “those under pressure” from family, society or community.