France has in recent days gone to great lengths to protect its secular nature. Earlier this week, France’s Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad called for tighter checks on the way the EU allocates grants following allegations that Brussels funded campaigns that did not respect France’s secular values, and purportedly entities linked to Islamist movements.
Macron has tasked his government with proposing measures to fight the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence, which are expected to be discussed next month, the president’s office said Tuesday.
Early version leaked
An early version of the report was leaked to the conservative daily Le Figaro and right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles, which one high-ranking member of government, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, attributed to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
Retailleau, who had already had access to the full report due to his role, told reporters earlier this week that the document would demonstrate how “Islamist infiltration is a threat.”
Presidential hopefuls jumped on the leak to put forward their own talking points even before the findings were officially made public. The president of the far-right National Rally, Jordan Bardella, told France Inter on Wednesday morning that the Muslim Brotherhood poses “one of the most existential challenges facing our country.”
And Gabriel Attal — who briefly served as prime minister last year and now leads the centrist pro-Macron Renaissance party — responded by floating ban on Muslim headscarves for those under 15.
On the left, the far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused the government of stoking Islamophobia and “giving credence” to far-right talking points.
“That’s enough! You’re going to destroy the country,” he wrote on X.
