“I will not let the image of France be spoiled.in the coming months or the coming years”, he said.
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President Francois Hollande insisted Thursday that France´s strict laws separating church and state do not prevent the country´s large Muslim minority from practising their religion.
In the speech, delivered in Paris and coming in the midst of a national debate on the banning of the Islamic burkini swimsuit, Hollande said: “Nothing in the idea of secularism opposes the practice of Islam in France, provided it respects the law”.
Hollande has come under attack from right-wing opponents, in particular former president Nicolas Sarkozy, over his track record on security.
The divisive and abrasive Sarkozy, who announced his candidacy for April’s presidential poll late last month, has said France needs to be “merciless” in its response to the attacks and that there was no place for “legal niceties” in the fight against terrorism. “No, constitutional principles are not just legal niceties”. Is freedom of expression a legal nicety?
“Freedom is not a handicap, it’s our strength”, Hollande said in a speech in Paris.
Earlier this summer, burkinis were banned from municipal beaches in 15 French towns, including Nice that suffered from a terrorist attack in July that killed 84 people.
Hollande’s popularity plunged soon after he took power in 2012, and polls show most voters don’t want to see him stay in office.
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More than two thirds of respondents held a negative view of the president’s fight against terrorism while 86 percent viewed his handling of the economy unfavourably amid stubbornly high unemployment.
