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The French Prime Minister presented the final version of the bill today (Getty)
The French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, presented the final version of the bill “promoting the principles of the republic”, Wednesday, during a cabinet meeting. The bill will be presented to representatives in the French Parliament before next summer, for final approval of the law.
This law has become one of the pillars of President Emmanuel Macron’s policy, and in his most important presidential plan for the remaining two years in power, but it encountered strong opposition and sparked great controversy when its first version generated controversy. on whether it was directed against Muslims within French society, as it contained in its title the phrase “The fight against separatism,” at a time when this term was directed at Islamic associations and personalities as a result of the terrorist attacks that struck to France in the second half of this year. “
That confusion forced the government to eliminate the term “separatism” and replace the title of the bill with “promote the principles of the republic”, to refute the accusation made against the president that he seeks to launch a law directed at Muslims mainly in France, which the Prime Minister reiterated today after the conclusion of the Cabinet meeting. .
Castex, at a press conference accompanied by Interior Minister Gerald Dermanan, Judge Eric Dupont Moretti and Education Jean-Michel Blancer, said: “This law is not a text against religions, nor against Islam in particular (.. .) on the contrary, it is a law of freedom, a law of protection and a law. For liberation from religious fundamentalism. “
Castex explained that the bill “will allow the government to have tools that allow it to combat ideological actions that point to our values, and that sometimes even provoke crimes.” “We also want through this law to protect those whose freedoms are threatened by actions and behaviors that contradict our values in the republic,” he added.
The government decided to introduce this bill in conjunction with the 115th anniversary of the 1905 law that separates church and state. In this context, Castex indicated that the main provisions of the new bill refer to “strengthening the impartiality (in matters of religion) of public servants”, so that discrimination based on religion or ethnicity becomes a “crime punishable by law ”and“ strengthen control and financing of places of worship ”. Therefore, any donation of more than 10,000 euros to a religious association will be counted and taxed, and education will be compulsory from the age of 3 “for every child according to the principles of the republic”, in addition to “new provisions to combat online hatred on social media. “
The topic of homeschooling is allowed in France for families who do not want to send their children to public schools or give them a homeschooling based on a normal permit, but with the new law, the topic will be more specific , which has sparked a lot of controversy during discussions about the law. In this regard, the Minister of Education said that the draft law “allows the State to refer to the criminal records of all teachers of private schools not contracted. We can strengthen the control of the financing of these schools.”
He added: “The exceptions stipulated in the home education authorization must comply with the rights of the child. (…) The stipulated exceptions are related to the child’s health status, disability, intense sports or artistic activity, family wandering in France, or the presence of a special case, if the interest is the best of the child is justified “. He emphasized that “education in the home must be in absolutely exceptional cases”, referring to religious education and the accusations that are made in some cases of implanting a religious ideology in the minds of children through this type of education. “We want to look at this social reality in your face: that is why we have created a licensing system for homeschooling, and it is no longer just a permit,” he said.
For his part, the Minister of Justice assured that the bill “allows the immediate arrest and prosecution of people who spread hate on social media. There should be no ambiguity: journalists are not the target of any kind of this text.” .
“These incidents began with the death of Samuel Patti (a history teacher who was killed by a refugee of Chechen origin after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression),” he explained. It started with a video clip, then with a hate speech that turned fatal, leading to the death of this person. The man. Therefore, we committed the crime of endangering the lives of others by revealing information related to their private life. “
Last Monday night, the Council of State had given the government the green light to present the bill to “strengthen the principles of the republic”, thus overcoming an obstacle that could have hindered it, but the council also presented an opinion which contained reservations and reform proposals, which happened in the clause on the issue of homeschooling. Instead of abolishing the possibility of family education, recognized since the Ferry Law of March 28, 1882, the Council of State proposed to maintain the wording of the law stipulating the cases in which this type of education could be used.
The Council also expressed a reservation on the restrictions that regulate the work of religious societies in the text of the bill, which is something that the government did not take into account in what is evidenced in its presentation of the final text today, already that the Council of State considered that “the bill increases the restrictions imposed on religious societies and creates an imbalance. Regarding the balance applied by the legislator in 1905 between the principle of freedom of constitution of these associations and the necessary framework for them, in order to benefit from the public benefits “provided by the French State, for which the City Council requests “check if these restrictions are justified and proportionate.
The new bill remains a very difficult test before the House of Representatives. Despite the parliamentary majority held by Macron’s “Republic Forward” party in the French Parliament, the issue of its approval will not be easy, given the many reservations expressed by the left, and even by the allies of the president of the centrist bloc. Modem, which was an obstacle, for example, for the approval of article 24 of the text of the “Integral Security” Law in its first version; This matter was evidenced through the opinion of the Council of State, through insinuations and illuminations that were more like letters to the deputies to object to some of the articles.
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