Twenty years after the law on religious symbols in French schools, nearly eight out of ten French people believe that secularism is in danger in their country.
This is one of the major lessons from the Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey carried out for
Le Figaro
.
A survey conducted on March 12 and 13 among a sample of 1,005 French people representative of the French population (aged 18 and over) interviewed online.
This fear, although it was already perceived twenty years ago, has since increased by 20 points in public opinion (78% today compared to 58% in 2005).
Furthermore, all French people, whatever their political color, share this feeling: from 68% among supporters of La France Insoumise (LFI) to 89% for those of the National Rally (RN).
82% of French people in favor of the law prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols at school
Secularism has never had so many supporters in France: 82% of those questioned are in favor of the law prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols at school, again with a marked increase of 17 points compared to 2005 and even of 25 points compared to 2003, when Jacques Chirac constituted the Stasi commission which recommended a ban on conspicuous religious symbols in schools.
At the time, 57% of French people were in favor.
This law passed under Chirac has therefore not aged a bit.
On the contrary, all French people support it: 74% of ecologists support it, 90% of Les Républicains, 79% of Insoumis and 87% of people declaring themselves close to the National Rally.
Even sociologically, the law on secularism has a consensus, since it convinces 80% of those under 25 and 82% of seniors.
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In detail, if a majority of 61% of French people consider that secularism is well respected in hospitals and in administrative services, 56% consider that it is poorly respected in schools.
“They certainly remember that a few months ago, the then Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, had to specify that
the wearing of the abaya (for girls) and the qamis (for boys) was banned in schools in the Republic ,
”
comments Céline Bracq, general director of Odoxa.
In any case, an even larger share of French people, 64%, consider that secularism is flouted in public spaces.
Is secularism constitutive of the national DNA?
No less than 87% of French people consider it, in any case, as a very important element of the identity of our country.
A proportion identical to that of those questioned who consider that it makes it possible to
“guarantee freedom of conscience”
.
78% of French people think that the text banning ostentatious religious symbols in schools is not an
“anti-religion”
law .
On the right, however, half of LR supporters (49%) agree with the idea that this principle should not put all religions on the same footing.
This is what a majority of RN supporters think (54%).
Finally, it is, according to Odoxa,
“with the Muslim religion that the French are most severe: 73% find that it respects the principle of secularism in France rather poorly, while 33% think so for the Jewish religion. and 19% for the Catholic religion
.
Véronique Reille-Soult, of Backbone Consulting, emphasizes, for her part, that
“when we talk about secularism on social networks, school is the main place mentioned, and wearing the veil is the first subject of tension”
.
According to her,
“some equate it with a form of sexism, while many Muslims feel stigmatized and unfairly denounced”
.
This analysis on social networks was conducted between March 6 and 12, at a time when Gabriel Attal publicly reaffirmed his visceral attachment to secularism, particularly in the National Assembly.