The French left claims that the veil is a “sign of integration” and that secularism “does not apply to the swimming pool”
The speeches of LFI and the Greens reveal a left subjugated to the values of Islam, trapped between secularism, electoral calculation and the appearance of "community" candidacies.
A French swimming pool
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French politics has experienced a week marked by two statements that have revived the old debate on secularism, religious symbols and political identities. In a few days, A candidate from La France Insoumise (LFI) presented the Islamic veil as a “sign of integration into French society”, and the leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, told a parliamentary committee that “laïcism does not apply to swimming pools.” referring to the burkini.
The two statements, coming from different sectors of the left, have been interpreted as a new symptom of the progressive bloc's disorientation in the face of political Islamism and the growing communitarianism in some territories.
“Wearing the veil is a sign of integration”: the controversy that dismantles LFI's official narrative
The controversy over the Islamic veil erupted when Sasha Bernert, a La France Insoumise candidate in the municipal elections in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, said on the radio that wearing The veil “is a sign of integration” because, in her view, it shows Muslim women who “go out, work and participate in society.”.
These words quickly spread across social media and the media because they directly contradict what Jean-Luc Mélenchon had just been defending before the parliamentary commission on the links between political parties and Islamism. Before the MPs, the leader of LFI asserted that its movement “will never accept a religious infiltration” and that the question of secularism is “fundamental”. He insisted that the party has no ties to Islamist networks, and that the commission has already “exonerated” LFI of these accusations.
He also called for discretion in the use of the veil and rejected the State regulating the clothing of adult people, stating that “in France the State is secular, not the street”. But he never presented the veil as an instrument of integration—an idea that does not feature in the party's official discourse. The contrast between Mélenchon and Bernert has fuelled the perception that LFI sends contradictory messages depending on the forum and the audience..
The leader of the Greens says that «laicism does not apply to swimming pools.”
On 2 December, Marine Tondelier, leader of the Green party EELV, appeared before the parliamentary commission investigating the links between Islamism and political parties. When questioned about the burkini, He stated that “laicism does not apply to swimming pools”, while admitting that this piece is religious but considering that only hygiene criteria needed to be taken into account..
Tondelier's words come at a time when his party It is facing an internal crisis deeply linked to the role of Islam in its electoral strongholds.Just a few days before Tondelier's intervention, the Green councillor Sabrine Decanton announced that she was withdrawing her candidacy for the mayoralty of Saint-Ouen.. The reason: colleagues in his own party had told him that His homosexuality would be “a problem in the working-class neighbourhoods”, neighbourhoods where the Muslim vote is majority. and often influenced by conservative religious norms.
Decanton's message was clear: her identity as a lesbian woman threatens election results in areas where Muslim values predominate, just the opposite of what EELV officially advocates.
Friendliness towards Islam while organised Islamic competition emerges.
The French left is trying to navigate an increasingly complex political terrain: it wants to maintain a universalist progressive discourse. At the same time, avoid any friction with a section of the Muslim electorate that is considered essential in many neighbourhoods. The left prefers to be kind, to moderate its language and to adapt to religious sensitivities in order not to lose votes, even when this kindness comes into conflict with their own feminist, secular or LGTBI principles.
But this strategy is coming just as a new generation of Muslim candidates emerges, educated and much more organised, who no longer seek to influence from the outside, but to compete electorally. In Strasbourg, profiles such as Cem Yoldas and Fahad Raja Muhammad They mobilise the identity vote among Turks and Arabs, propose gender-segregated opening hours at swimming pools and introduce religiously rooted demands into municipal politics.. This new community elite can speak the language of the Republic and, at the same time, that of cultural and religious identity. And herein lies the paradox: While the traditional left contorts itself to please, others enter the political arena without any qualms and with an explicit Islamist agenda.. The risk for LFI and EELV is clear: in trying to win over this electorate, they may end up ceding space, credibility and even leadership to actors who do not share, not by a long shot, their vision of secularism or the republican project.
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