Secularism: the government goes into practice – Le Monde

A little over a year after the Emmanuel Macron’s speech at Les Mureaux (Yvelines) against the “Islamist separatism”, a little less than four months after the final adoption of the law “consolidating the principles of the Republic”, the governmental machine is set in motion in order to apply its ambitious project in the area of ​​secularism. The site is gigantic. It was to be partially unveiled during an interministerial council scheduled for Thursday, December 9 in Matignon.

December 9 was not chosen at random. This date, which marks the anniversary of the 1905 Law on the Separation of Church and State, is now officially the “national day of secularism”. Thursday’s interministerial council, headed by the prime minister in the presence of a dozen members of the government, is the second of its kind. The previous one, on July 15, saw the adoption of an action plan in seventeen measures, some present in the law known as “separatism” and others going beyond, that it is now to implement.

First measure formalized by the interministerial committee on Thursday: the publication of a new charter of secularism, “Updated, completed and clarified”. This text applies in the whole of the public service (State, territorial and hospital) but also in the private organizations ensuring a delegation of public service.

This last clarification greatly widens the scope of application of this text. It now concerns managers of public or sports facilities such as stadiums, swimming pools, as well as HLM offices, depending on their status. All the employees of these private companies will be considered as public officials, at least as far as secularism is concerned, and the same rules will be applied to them. These private operators have one year to comply with the law, that is to say provide “secular referents” and adopt a code of sanctions in the event of infringement.

Specific training plan for RATP agents

To mark her commitment to this subject, Marlène Schiappa, Minister for Citizenship, was to visit a RATP bus depot at Pavillons-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) on Thursday morning. The RATP, accused a few years ago of turning a blind eye to too many attacks on secularism within it (refusal to shake hands with women on the part of certain agents, spaces for prayers in the company’s premises, etc.) and covered by several parliamentary reports on this subject, appointed in March a general delegate for ethics and compliance, Frédéric potier.

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