President Sarkozy is trying to calm enthusiasm among his troops for a ban on the niqab, or full veil. In common with the main political parties, and most of the public, he wants some sort of action but, after months of debate, he has doubts about the wisdom of a special law to prohibit women from wearing the Islamic dress.
Now, decision-time is looming. After four months of hearings an all-party group of MPs is to report on the merits (or otherwise) of legislating against the niqab. The commission, chaired by a Communist, said that it would call for the maximum solution: a law that bans women from wearing the niqab anywhere in public.
The parliamentary chiefs of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Mr Sarkozy’s party, have jumped the gun with a Bill, to be tabled next week, for a law that would prohibit anyone from covering their faces in public, indoors or outdoors, on pain of a €750 (£650) fine. Exceptions would be made for safety headgear and very cold weather.
An opinion poll this week showed that 57 per cent of the public supports an overall ban, with 37 per cent opposed. The Socialist opposition is split: Martine Aubry, its leader, takes the side of those who regard the anti-niqab drive as a distasteful, populist exercise by the Sarkozy Administration. They claim that only about 2,000 women in France have adopted the dress and that the fuss is being used to divert attention from more urgent matters.
Ms Aubry, nevertheless, supports measures to discourage women from wearing the dress using existing laws, while several senior Socialists back an overall prohibition in order to combat what, in their eyes, is an affront to the egalitarian principles of the Republic.
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Mr Sarkozy is worried that an anti-niqab law will be seen by French Muslims and the outside world as an act of discrimination and thus, feed hostility from radical Islamic groups. Marc Trevidic, the judge in charge of anti-terrorism investigations, said last week that a ban would make France a target for extremists. Mr Sarkozy has listened to the religious leaders — Christian, Muslim and Jewish — who say that a prohibition would stigmatise all French Muslims even though the great majority of them disapprove of the niqab.
The President has sailed close to the wind when it comes to France’s 6 million-strong Muslim population. He has played on public anxiety towards them by staging a national debate on French identity that is due to end next month. On the other hand he has cast himself as the Muslims’ protector.
He told parliamentarians last week: “The full veil is not welcome in France because it is contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman’s dignity. No one can doubt my firmness on this. But it is vital to conduct ourselves in a way that no one feels stigmatised. We must find a solution that enables us to win the widest support.”
Mr Sarkozy also doubts whether such a law could be enforced and he is concerned that it could be challenged as a breach of basic rights as guaranteed by the French Constitution and the European Convention.
He does not want another humiliation at the hands of the Constitutional Council. This body, the final arbiter on new laws, has knocked back several pieces of Mr Sarkozy’s legislation lately, most recently his showcase carbon tax. Constitutional experts are divided over the legality of a broad ban.
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The President is urging his MPs to cool their ardour and wait until after regional elections in March. Then he wants them to pass a formal resolution stating that the niqab breaches basic French principles, including women’s equality and laïcit?, the strict exclusion of religion from state affairs. The likely text of this resolution was published today.
Only after further debate should laws be considered and these should be limited to enforcing republican principles on state premises, such as post offices, hospitals and universities, according to Mr Sarkozy’s aides. The niqab is already banned from state schools under a 2003 law.
Those relatively limited measures are still likely to cause a furore in countries that do not share France’s devotion to the values of la R?publique. It remains to be seen whether Mr Sarkozy’s wishes will be respected by a Parliament that seems bent on outright prohibition.