France to weigh new law to fight separatism
By Liu Lingling
People's Daily app
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File photo: Xinhua

Paris (People’s Daily) - The French government will present by October a bill against separatism which will target any “project organized on the fringes of the country and against the country, with a view to undermine it,” declared the French minister responsible for citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, on Sunday.

“More than radical Islam, it is political Islam” which is targeted, said Schiappa in an interview with French media. 

“The only valid question is whether there is a project to organize against the country,” said Schiappa.

According to the French Ministry for Citizenship, since 2017 the French government has closed nearly 300 “problematic places, from the liquor store to the non-contract school, which preached separatism.”

“We will continue and amplify this,” promised the minister.

"There are also gray areas and these gray areas we must better define in the law and that is the meaning of this bill against separatism, to ensure that we have all the tools, all the instruments,” explained Schiappa, while recommending strengthening the partnership between mayors and prefects.

Defending France's official secularism and fighting “radical Islamism in all its forms” is also a great priority for France's newly-appointed Prime Minister Jean Castex. For him, the new law would aim to "avoid certain groups becoming closed in around ethnic or religious identities.”

According to the French media, the content of the text on the upcoming legislation is not yet known. Lawyers from the Civil Liberties and Legal Affairs Department of the Interior Ministry have worked hard to refine it.