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Laïcité and republicanism during the Sarkozy presidency

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French Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

Laïcité – the principle of constitutional secularism – is an important pillar of French republican thought. Under the Sarkozy presidency, it became a focal point in the discourse and policies of the UMP government, in its engagement with questions of integration, social cohesion and the broader politics of identity and belonging. In particular, laïcité was increasingly understood as requiring French Muslims, in particular, to exercise discretion in the exercise of religious faith in public spaces. However, jurists and the Conseil d’Etat have continued to interpret it as a liberal principle of state neutrality, which imposes no restraint as such on private individuals. This article charts the expansionary interpretation of laïcité in centre-right politics, over this period, in view of broader debates on national identity and social cohesion.

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Notes

  1. Loi n° 2010–1192, 11 October 2010.

  2. Decision no. 2010–613, 7 October 2001. The law defines ‘public space’ as ‘public paths and roads as well as places open to the public, and used for public services’. Loi n° 2010–1192, 11 October 2010. The Conseil included one proviso to its decision: that ‘public spaces’ could not be interpreted as including ‘places of worship open to the public’ (Conseil d’Etat, 2010).

  3. Loi n° 2010–1192, Article 6.

  4. Assemblée Nationale debates, 3e séance du Mardi 6 juillet 2010

  5. Decision no. 2010–613, 7 October 2001.

  6. The poster is visible at www.visage-decouvert.gouv.fr/.

  7. Proposition de loi n° 4182, presented on 18 January 2012.

  8. Decision no. 308591, 27 June 2008.

  9. Assemblée Nationale debates, 3e séance du Mardi 6 juillet 2010.

  10. See, in particular, the intervention by Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister for Justice and Garde des Sceaux, during the Assemblée Nationale debates, 3e séance du Mardi 6 juillet 2010.

  11. Article 521-1, Penal Code.

  12. Assemblée Nationale debates, 3e séance du Mardi 6 juillet 2010.

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Daly, E. Laïcité and republicanism during the Sarkozy presidency. Fr Polit 11, 182–203 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/fp.2013.7

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