Paris, February 3, 2004

The ability to keep alive the values which constitute the foundation of our Republic is its great strength.

Recently, President Chirac gave us a solemn and serious reminder of the meaning of secularity ( laïcité ) in our country and said that he wished my government to present a Bill on the application of the principle of secularity in the Republic's schools.

The issue raised by the Bill I have come to put before you concerns the constancy of our values and also our ability to get those who have joined us more recently, and who are now fully French, to share those values.

Finally, it is about the Republic's ability to act resolutely on its beliefs.

France's tradition is one of openness: our country, long a Christian land, has been enriched by contact with diverse cultures and will continue to be, especially through the men and women of every background who today have founded families in our country, thanks to their integration within our nation.

Integration is a process which presupposes a desire on both sides: to move towards the acceptance of certain values, a choice of lifestyle, support for a particular way of looking at the world which is peculiar to France.

This vision of the world as a place where religion and politics are independent of each other, where the State is neutral, where all religions are respected, is one which we are entitled to share with all those, whoever they may be, who live in our country. This is the meaning of the Bill I put before you today.

But that is not the whole of it. We are conscious of the need to extend a welcome as historically we have done to those we have brought here, we are conscious too of the need to keep alive the concept of equality which is at the heart of the Republican project.

In fact, this notion of equality is sometimes deformed, often to the detriment of those who feel rejected by our country, where, I repeat, they are French people like everyone else. Our values seem out of their reach.

Our duty is to create the conditions which will enable these values to be shared. This ambition can't be renounced.

This is why we must stand firm on our fundamental values.

The Act I have come to present to you is a milestone, a fundamental one, in our policy of living together, in the interests of the national cohesion which is one of the [French government's] Agenda 2006 priority projects to promote a spirit of openness in France.

SECULARITY

The question we have been asked to answer is a complicated one; it requires a need to be very clear about the ideas which structure the French-style Republican model.

For me, these ideas are based on our common values: liberty – and therefore freedom of conscience, equality – and therefore equality between men and women –, and fraternity – a both spiritual and truly secular humanist value.

These three values of our Republic are fully expressed in the principle of secularity.

Our secularity is not a rejection of religion. Our century, regarded as turbulent, changing and a source of uncertainties, is, on the contrary, to my mind a century of hope where religions can offer their answers to the fundamental dual question of the human tragedy and mankind's destiny.

Secularity means freedom, the freedom to imagine the future.

Secularity is also a grammar allowing a dispassionate and tranquil dialogue between religions and with the State, within our country.

Secularity secures neutrality for the State and its agents.

It looks for the source of right in reason and the human will. It is therefore a fundamental value of our humanism.

The principle of secularity has been built up incrementally, sometimes through confrontation as at the beginning of the last century, subsequently in a calmer way.

The second Vatican Council, in adopting a declaration on religious freedom, put the finishing touches to what René Remond describes in “Christianity's Great Inventions” as “the reconciliation of Church and freedom”.

Today, all the great religions in France's history have adapted to this principle. For the most recent arrival, I mean Islam, secularity is an opportunity: the opportunity to be a French religion.

Indeed, here I salute the energy of those men and women who have recently helped to establish the French Council of the Muslim faith [ Conseil français du Culte musulman ], which facilitates the dialogue between the State and French Muslims. I have seen for myself that, in a difficult situation, this Council could demonstrate a sense of responsibility.

THE REPUBLIC

This Bill has not been drafted against a particular group of people or religion; the Republic guarantees everyone the freedom to practise their chosen religion. Neutrality isn't negation.

On the contrary, for the Republic, it is a way of marking the line separating what is acceptable from what isn't; this text aspires to give an answer to those wishing to put their membership of a community above the laws of the Republic.

Because the State is the protector of the freedom of conscience, it has a duty to intervene when proselytism, a withdrawal into a community, a refusal to recognize the equality of the sexes threaten that fundamental liberty at the heart of our Republican pact. In the French Republic, religion can't and won't be a political project.

After the discussion period to which you have made a major contribution, the time has come for a decision and for the Act to be passed, along the lines President Chirac recently announced, and following the work of your parliamentary mission and the Commission chaired by M. Bernard Stasi.

It has to be recognized that certain religious signs, among them the Islamic veil, are now becoming more frequently seen in our schools. They are in fact taking on a political meaning and can no longer be considered simply personal signs of religious affiliation.

Some people wanted to know how far they could go; today we give them their answer. It was time the Republic recalled its great principles and set clear, practical and operational limits. The Republic's silence on this subject today would be tantamount to its absence. It was natural for Parliament to be called to deliver its opinion on this fundamental value.

With this Act, you will be responding to an expectation on the part of the French as a whole, but also of the educational community, who are asking the politicians to shoulder their responsibilities and stop saddling with this burden the men and women in the Republican front line, i.e. head teachers and teaching and ancillary staff.

SCHOOL

School is a place of Republican neutrality and must remain so because it is above all else the place where minds are formed, where knowledge is passed on and where children learn to live as citizens – all concepts incompatible with proselytism.

A school is a place which promotes an openness to the universal, the one in which it is most important for Republican values to hold sway, not one where pupils are inward-looking. History, on this point, is eloquent.

In a seminar at the Pierre Mendès-France Institute, Robert Badinter reminded us of the popular success of one of the books promoting the development of Republican education at the end of the nineteenth century, “A Tour of France by Two Children”, more than 8 million copies of which were sold in the 1870s!

The Republic's values were shared by all the children of France, whatever their origins.

Throughout these years, how many young immigrants have been integrated thanks to primary and secondary school teachers for whom the Republic is still a mission. Some great names bear this out.

Today, we must reassert for them the strength of our values, the strength of Republican secularity.

“Doing nothing would be wrong”, the President has told us.

The Bill before you, prepared by Luc Ferry, Minister for Education, who will speak at the opening of tomorrow's session, is short, simple and balanced.

It proposes that “in State primary and secondary schools, the wearing of signs or clothes conspicuously denoting a religious affiliation” be prohibited.

This ban, to which State schools will draw attention means that head teachers will have the force of the law behind them when applying their decisions and will help the school staff fulfil their mission in the service of the Republic.

“Conspicuously denote” must be understood to mean the intention outwardly to display and proclaim a religious affiliation.

In the view of MM. Marceau Long and Patrick Weil, expressed recently in a joint article, the related term ‘visible' would apparently pose “a problem of compliance with the European Convention of Human Rights”. There is a risk there, which is why we have chosen the term ‘conspicuous'.

With the proposed wording, pupils, if they wish, will be able to wear discreet objects signifying for them their religious beliefs whilst respecting Article 10 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

I am very keen to have this Act applied in a spirit of mediation and dialogue, avoiding unnecessary tension or too-rapid decisions whilst respecting the values of openness and tolerance which underpin our Republic.

This is why the government has accepted the amendment proposed by your Commission des lois [committee responsible for reviewing legislation], which explicitly states that there must be dialogue before any sanction. Here too, the Act has to be clear.

I know that for several political groups in your Assembly, this point was a decisive one. We shall take it into account.

This Bill will apply to Overseas France under certain conditions to do with the distribution of power between the State and the relevant local authorities in the education sphere.

HOSPITALS

The Act will be followed in particular by a statutory provision specifying certain conditions with regard to compliance with the principle of secularity in hospitals because here too the fundamental principles must be restated.

Let us not be afraid of the reactions that this text might provoke. The “moderates”, those whom we fear may not understand, are well aware that they are not the ones who would benefit from the Republic's weakness.

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Secularity also signifies justice for the faithful of all religions.

Since 1905, the religious landscape of our country has changed profoundly. We need to take these changes on board.

This is why the government is currently considering the implementation of the Stasi Commission proposals. Indeed, I want the “secularity policy” to be a balanced one.

Through a process of dialogue and consultation, dietary customs and funeral traditions, for example, must be respected in our country and no pupil must be penalized because he or she respects the great religious festivals. I also want schools strongly to develop in depth the teaching of the concept of religion and to pay more attention to immigrant history.

INTEGRATION

The Bill I am introducing to you today is a starting point, not a final destination.

It is the mainspring of a policy which sets the limits of, and outlines what can, what must be accepted by the Republic.

We must treat the causes of the problems and not just their consequences. This is the way we shall most effectively combat the threatened development of communautarisme [splitting societies into communities].

It is now up to us to ensure that the Republic keeps its promise by finding answers to the failures of integration and highlighting its many successes.

Equality through social advancement, liberty through the acceptance of diversity, fraternity between French people, whatever their origins: these are the right answers.

On my appointment [as Prime Minister], I decided to make integration and equal opportunities a priority action and a government policy.

I therefore called the first meeting of the Interministerial Integration Committee in 12 years.

I have created a “reception and integration contract” for newcomers which will make it easier to learn our language and our values.

For second-generation immigrants who today are fully French, for the young and not so young who, like everyone else, must be entitled to promotion on merit, our policy must rest on two pillars: the fight against discrimination and social advancement through training and employment.

As part of the “positive action” in favour of equal opportunities, which I so want to see, there will be three landmark events.

First, the setting-up of an independent equal opportunities and anti-discrimination authority: it must be operational by the end of the year.

Next, an Interministerial Integration Committee meeting in the spring, on schools and training – it is already in preparation.

Finally, an equal opportunities conference in the second half of the year, with businesses and both sides of industry, because this issue concerns not only government but the whole of society. The conference will be an opportunity to get businesses to take action, to disseminate good practice and implement practical measures for the social advancement of those who deserve it.

We have also decided to take measures to ensure respect for women's rights and combat the ghettos from which communautarisme springs: this is the whole purpose of the five-year urban renewal Act you passed last year.

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Secularity is at the heart of our Republic. It is simultaneously a tradition, a way of life and a promise of freedom.

Today, we need to strengthen it. It is in order to do this that the government has decided to refer the matter to Parliament.

This is why I call upon you all, whatever your political leanings, to rally round this Bill, which symbolizes our trust in the Republic and our national will to live together.

In itself, this Act is both the expression of a belief and a lever for action. It is the harmony of thought and action which gives the policy its strength./.