Today's Date:

What is at stake is supporting the principle of secularism, which is one of the pillars of our Republic.

The government’s bill clearly reaffirms the neutrality of our public schools. It is obviously not intended to outlaw signs of religious affiliation worn in everyday life.

This text is necessary.

It protects our schools from breaking down along ethnic lines. School must remain a privileged place for the transmission of republican principles and a melting pot for equal opportunity. Choosing to ban conspicuous signs [of religion] in schools is a decision that respects our history, our customs and our values.

To do nothing would be irresponsible. It would be wrong. It would leave teachers and principals to face growing difficulties alone. And that would leave open the dangerous path of putting ethnic identities first.

This text establishes a clear principle. It will make it possible to deal with the concrete problems facing our schools while always opting first for the path of dialogue.

But the republican need that inspires us will have full meaning only if we know how to support equal opportunity, guarantee the strict equality between women and men, enforce the principle of a mixed society, fight discrimination and resolutely strive for integration.

Regardless of their origins and their convictions, French men and women have the same rights, the same duties, and they have a right to the same respect and the same opportunities.

This debate should help us rediscover what it is that underlies our unity, beyond our differences.

It is an opportunity for the French to join together with a renewed will to live together.