2023-12-09 00:09:15
A new sterile controversy about the eternal debate of secularism in France? Or a real slip on the part of Emmanuel Macron? The French president took part on Thursday at the Elysee in an event of the European Conference of Rabbis (CER) in which a candle was lit on the first day of Hanukkah (Feast of Lights). This ceremony, with a religious dimension, has generated intense controversy in France, where the separation of religions with respect to everything related to the State – institutions, schools… – usually fuels multiple controversies.
From the left-wing opposition to the right-wing and ultra-right parties, they accuse the centrist leader of having violated the 1905 law on secularism. This legislation, which embodies the DNA of French republicanism, stipulates that “the Republic does not recognize, does not give a salary or subsidize any cult”. Even the president of the Representative Council of the Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, called this Hanukkah event at the presidential headquarters a “mistake”.
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Visit to Notre-Dame
“If the President of the Republic had lent himself to a cultural gesture or participated in a ceremony, that would not be respectful of secularism. But that is not what happened,” Macron justified yesterday. “Secularism does not mean the erasure of religions,” he added during a visit to Notre-Dame cathedral.
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