PARIS: President Francois Hollande said Thursday that Islam could coexist with secularism, warning in a key speech that the anti-terror fight should not undermine French values.
He also said he would not let France’s image deteriorate “over the coming months or coming years”, his clearest indication yet that he intends to run for a second term in office next year.
In an hour-long speech on “democracy and terrorism”, Hollande, a Socialist, took a swipe at his right-wing opponents, saying their hardline reactions to a wave of militant attacks demonstrated an intent to destroy France’s social model.
“I won’t let the image of France, the influence of France, deteriorate over the coming months or coming years,” said Hollande, who opinion polls show is the most unpopular French leader of modern times.
Hollande has come under attack from right-wing opponents, in particular former president Nicolas Sarkozy, over his track record on security. More than 230 people have been killed in militant Islamist attacks on French soil since January 2015.
Sarkozy, who announced last month his candidacy for the April 2017 presidential poll, has said France needs to be “merciless” in its response to the attacks and that there is no place for “legal niceties” in the fight against terrorism.
Without mentioning Sarkozy by name, Hollande said: “Constitutional principles are not legal niceties.”
“Is the freedom to come and go a legal nicety? Is freedom of expression a legal nicety? Is freedom to worship a legal nicety? Is being presumed innocent — something that’s useful when defending one’s self — a legal nicety?”
Hollande said at the left-wing Jean Jaures Foundation, drawing warm applause.
In the speech he also defended the country’s Muslim minority following a vitriolic debate on the banning of the Islamic burking swimsuit.
“Nothing in the idea of secularism opposes the practice of Islam in France, provided it respects the law,” Hollande said.
Secularism was not a “state religion” to be used against other religions, he said, denouncing the “stigmatisation of Muslims.”
Mayors in around 30 French towns this summer cited the country’s century-old secular laws in banning head-to-toe swimwear on their beaches, unleashing a furore.
Several of the towns later revoked the bans after France’s highest administrative court ruled they were a “serious” violation of basic freedoms.
Hollande rejected calls by conservatives, including his arch-rival, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, for a ban on the burking, saying it would be “unconstitutional”.
As to whether Islam can coexist with a secular French state, like Christianity and Judaism do, he insisted: “My answer is yes, certainly.”
“The question the Republic must answer is: Is it really ready to embrace a religion that it did not expect to be this big over a century ago. There too, my answer is yes, certainly.”
In a wide-ranging speech Hollande cast himself as the defender of democracy in the face of a string of terror attacks that have left over 230 people dead since January 2015.
The government has responded by deploying thousands of troops to patrol the streets, enacting a raft of anti-terror laws and repeatedly extending a state of emergency — measures deemed insufficient by the conservative opposition.
Hollande warned that France could not sacrifice its core values of liberty, equality and fraternity.
“Did the Patriot Act and Guantanamo protect Americans from the (terrorist) threat? No,” he said, alluding to calls by Sarkozy for terror suspects to be interned in camps.
“Democracy is our weapon” Hollande insisted.
Polls predict the Socialist leader would suffer a humiliating defeat if he threw his hat in the ring again after five years marked by stubbornly high unemployment and only timid attempts at reform.
Three of his former ministers have already announced their own presidential bids.
They could soon be joined by ambitious former economy minister Emmanuel Macron, who resigned from government last week and has hinted he too could run for the Elysee Palace.
Hollande cast himself as the only man who could hold the fractured country together.
“When there is danger we must come together,” he said.
— AFP
