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EXPLAINED: What does laïcité (secularism) really mean in France?

Often at the centre of heated debates, France's state secularism is not always clearly understood by either its proponents or critics. Here's a look at what "laïcité" really means.

EXPLAINED: What does laïcité (secularism) really mean in France?
Three feminist activists placard posters of a drawing by French cartoonist Charb to read " Laicite " in Montreuil, on October 20th, 2020. Photo: AFP

Laîcité, usually translated as secularism, is in brief the principle that everyone in France has the freedom to worship as they choose – but the state itself remains strictly neutral and does not take part in any religious practices.

However that seemingly straightforward concept is the cause of an increasing number of battles and misunderstandings.

Here’s a closer look at what it means. 

What is the definition of secularism?

“There is no one single definition of the concept of secularism,” stated a report by France’s Conseil d’Etat, the legal advisor to the government, titled Un siècle de laïcité (One Century of secularism).

“Untranslatable in most languages, the concept of secularism refers, in the broad sense, to a loss of hold by religion on society,” they wrote.

The report was published in 2004, ahead of the 100-year-anniversary of the 1905 law that became the bedrock of French secularism by formally separating religious and State matters in France.

While that law – Law on Separation of the Churches and State – did not actually employ the term laïcité, it is the number one legal reference for the principle of secularism today in France.

Where does it come from? 

Secularism’s roots go back to French Revolution of 1789. Enlightenment thinkers felt reason and universal values had to be protected.

The 19th century saw a battle between the “two Frances”, with secular republicans struggling to contain the power of the dominant Catholic Church.

After 1862, when education became free and secular, that battle became a culture war. Secular schoolteachers – nicknamed the “Black Hussars of the Republic” after their black coats – took on the Catholic clergy for the hearts and minds of every village in France.

Laïcité was enshrined in the French Constitution in 1946. Article 1 states “La France est une République laïque” (France is a secular republic). 

Is it only French?

France’s secularism has influenced many countries including Mexico, which also used it to counter the power of the Catholic Church.  

But it was most whole-heartedly taken up in Muslim-majority Turkey by it modern founder Ataturk. Turkey’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has spent much of his 17 years in power trying to roll that back.

What exactly does it mean?

It’s a complicated matter, which is not made easier by the fact that there is no clear, simple definition of the term.

But secularism is a principle that is supposed to evolve with the times, legal scholars have stressed.

The French government has a website page dedicated to the question Qu’est-ce que la laïcité ? (What is secularism?). 

Their long explanation can be summed up in four core principles, collected from a 2013 legal decision by the French Constitutional Council, the body in charge of reviewing constitutionality of French laws. These are:

  • state neutrality;
  • respect for all beliefs and equality of all citizens before the law without distinction of religion;
  • freedom to worship;
  • the absence of official worship.

What does that mean in practice?

Secularism in France is a principle meant to guarantee freedom for each individual to believe whatever they want and exercise this right as they please without interference from the state.

At the same time, religion must be exercised in the private, not public, sphere.

The state must be neutral, which means that public officials cannot wear religious signs. Crosses, hijabs, kippahs and other religious clothing or symbols are therefore banned from public institutions such as schools and for public officials on duty (teachers, police officers, firefighters).

There are also no displays of religion in public institutions, so schools do not have prayer meetings, religious assemblies or religious events such as Nativity Plays at Christmas.

Are there exceptions?

In France, there are nearly always exceptions to a rule. Despite its strict secularism, French public holidays still mark Christian holidays including Christmas, Easter and more obscure ones like Assumption and Ascension Day.

At the same time, far-right party Rassemblement National has not yet succeeded in its mission to decorate French town and city halls with Christian cribs at Christmas. That said, official buildings such as mairies do put up decorations at Christmas, usually some nice twinkly lights that are festive without being overtly Christian.

Secular laws do not, however, apply in quite the same way in the eastern borderlands of Alsace-Lorraine, where Christian and Jewish clerics are paid by the state, for historical reasons linked to wars with Germany.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: Does France really have a hijab ban?

Is it changing in modern time?

French secularism has been on the defensive since the late 1980s with the emergence of identity politics, Christian and Jewish revivalism and most of all, radical Islam, given the movement of Muslims from its former colonies since the 1950s.

In 2004 France banned “the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols or garb” in state schools. It became known as “the French headscarf ban” abroad, though it applies to symbols of all religions.

In 2010 France banned the niqab, the full-face veil, in public places – although this law was eventually framed as a security concern and actually covers all full-face coverings. Several local authorities had attempted to ban the burkini, the full-cover swimsuit, on their beaches, but this was overturned by the courts.

What does it NOT mean?

Secularism is often misunderstood in France today, even by government officials. In September, a French MP of ruling party La République en Marche caused a stir when she refused to participate in a parliamentary session together with a Muslim woman who was wearing the headscarf. 

While MPs and staff in public buildings in France are forbidden from wearing religious clothing, that rule does not apply to visitors, like the woman in question.

As a citizen and not a public official, she was exercising her right to religious freedom in accordance with French law cited above.

“The problem we are seeing today is that we want to impose neutrality on individuals, which is the opposite of laïcité,” said Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar and law Phd candidate who specialises in religious freedom, human rights and civil liberties in France, Europe and North America.Alouane told The Local she prefers not to translate laïcité to secularism, for accuracy purposes.

France’s interior minister also caused uproar when he said supermarket chains should abolish their separate food aisles for ethnic foods. The comment, which was hailed by some rightwing commentators as a bold defence of secularism, caused critics to call out the interior minister as misusing the core principle to further his own political agenda.

As private businesses supermarkets – and all other stores – are not bound to observe laïcité in the same way as government agencies and public officials.

ANALYSIS: Why does France’s interior minister think supermarket ethnic food isles are a threat to the nation?

Similarly, sports retailer Decathlon was attacked on the grounds of laïcité for offering a ‘running hijab’, although as a private business catering to private individuals it was perfectly entitled to offer the headgear.

“Interfering with religious matters in this way is in itself a violation of laïcité,” Alouane said then.

Laïcité is freedom.”

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ELECTIONS

Explained: The party manifestos for France’s snap elections

As the formal campaign period begins in France's snap legislative elections, here's a look at the manifestos of the main parties and what they mean for foreigners living here.

Explained: The party manifestos for France's snap elections

Monday marks the start of the official campaign period for France’s snap legislative elections – a brief two-week campaign before the first round of voting on Sunday, June 30th followed by round two a week later on July 7th. 

Here’s a look at the manifestos of the main parties, with a particular emphasis on any immigration policies that would affect the lives of foreigners in France, or those planning to move here some day.

Renaissance

First up is Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party Renaissance – its platform was unveiled by Macron himself in a televised press conference, with a more detailed programme unveiled later by prime minister Gabriel Attal.

The party is at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to the programme, since its main policy goals are already known and it is limited by financial and other factors from announcing any especially bold new goals. The result was that Macron in his launch speech was left to talk about policies that had already been announced or vague goals such as holding a ‘national debate’ on France’s secularism policy.

Macron also framed the election as a ‘battle against extremism’ saying: “I hope that when the time comes, men and women of goodwill who will have been able to say no to the extremes will come together… to build a shared, sincere project that is useful to the country.” 

Programme – Much of the programme will be familiar since Macron was after all re-elected in 2022 and set out his five-year plan at the time. On the economy and the environment, the president said that his party would continue to grow foreign investment in France, cut unemployment and work towards the ‘green reindustrialisation’ of the country – a Macron pet project to create jobs and industry in France by embracing new green technologies such as car batteries.

He also re-committed to France’s domestic nuclear energy programme, and to France’s strong support for Ukraine.

Among the new parts were a ‘great national debate’ on the tricky subject of French state secularism (laïcité) and limits to access to screens for children – as recommended by a commission of experts.

Attal also unveiled some new measures on the key issue of the cost-of-living, with promises to triple the ‘Macron bonus’ paid to some employees from €3,000 a year to €10,000, index-linking pensions to inflation, reducing utility bills by 15 percent next winter and help for parents in buying school supplies.

He also proposes axing the notaire fee (in reality a kind of tax on home purchases) for any property purchased for under €250,000 and setting up an extra renovation fund to give grants to property-owners to repairs and energy works.

Some ongoing Macronist legislation such as changing the law on assisted dying has been interrupted on its journey through parliament, but would likely restart if the party wins a majority.

The party’s programme makes no specific suggestions for changes to the immigration system, but it did just introduce a new immigration law in January that – among other things – introduces a language test requirement for certain types of residency cards and raises the language level required for French citizenship through naturalisation.

Front Populaire

France’s largest leftist political parties have struck an election pact not to stand candidates against each other – in order to avoid dividing the leftist vote.

This means that the hard-left La France Insoumise will field 229 candidates, the centre-left Parti Socialiste will field 175, the Green EELV 92 and the Communists 50. It also means that the parties are presenting a single, joint manifesto under the banner of Nouveau Front Populaire – which has been the subject of much argument and some awkward compromises.

Programme – much of the programme is concerned with cancelling recent Macronist laws. Among the laws it says it will cancel are the new immigration bill – the one that introduces French language tests for certain types of residency card and raises the language level required for French citizenship.

The manifesto also proposes introducing a 10-year carte de séjour residency card ‘as the standard card’ – at present the standard model is for one-year cards initially and then move on to five-year and then 10-year cards, although there are significant variations based on your personal status (eg working, student, retired or family member).

Also set for the chop are Macron’s changes to unemployment benefits plus a cancellation of the price rises in electricity and gas and the reintroduction of the ‘wealth tax’ scrapped by Macron in 2018. Meanwhile the pension age would be dropped down to 60 (cancelling Macron’s law raising it from 62 to 64 and dropping it another two years).

The party would also raise the Smic (minimum wage) to €1,600 a month.

The environment forms a key part of the manifesto with a range of green incentives plus tax and financing rules that would clamp down on fossil fuels.

On foreign policy there are some delicately worded compromises since views on Ukraine and Gaza had previously split the leftist alliance. The group promises to “unfailingly defend the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people” including by delivering weapons and writing off debt. On Gaza, the party would recognise the Palestinian state and embargo arms supplies to Israel.

Policy towards the EU – a topic that divides the left – is left to one side.

Rassemblement National

The far-right Rassemblement National party will be joined by at least some candidates from the right-wing Les Republicains party, although the internal party divide over that pact will see some LR candidates independently. 

Programme – the party makes immigration one of its key concerns, with a commitment to “drastically reduce legal and illegal immigration and deport foreign criminals” listed as a priority.

The programme opposes both non-economic migration and family reunification – no detail is given on changes to the visa or residency card system in this area, but it seems likely that anyone wanting to move for non-work related reasons (eg retirees) would face restrictions. Likewise spouse visas would be affected by any changes to family reunification rules.

Non-French citizens would only be able to access social benefits such as housing benefits or caring allowances after working in France for five years and there would also be a ‘French first’ preference for access to employment and social housing.

Residency permits would be withdrawn for any non-French citizens who have been unemployed for more than one year.

Asylum claims would exclusively be processed outside France.

When it comes to French citizenship, the party wants to abolish the droit du sol, which gives the right to French citizenship to children born in France to foreign parents and limit access to citizenship for adults “on the basis of merit and assimilation” – it’s not clear how this would differ from the current system where candidates must already prove that they speak French and understand French culture and politics.

The party also has a strong line on law and order – doubling the number of magistrates, increasing fines for certain offences, adding those convicted of street harassment to the sex offenders’ register and creating a “presumption of legitimate defence” for police officers who kill or injure members of the public.

This article is part of a series on election platforms in France, we will look at each party’s economic platform in a separate piece. You can follow all the latest election news in our election section HERE, and you can also sign up here to receive our bi-weekly election breakdown during the campaign period

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