France's clumsy debate on secularism

France's governing UMP party launched a discussion about the separation of Church and state under the catch phrase "Secularism and the place of religion in the Republic" at a controversial party meeting on Tuesday. But the debate conveys a distorted image of France, writes the business paper Les Echos: "The 'debate on secularism' is poorly formulated and heavy with electoral overtones. ... And it has already produced a paradoxical result, giving France the image of a country where this venerated Republican principle is highly contested and where all discussion on the subject must necessarily be heated. As if we'd gone back to where we were a hundred years ago! Creating the concept of 'French secularism' has certainly been a long and arduous process, but who can deny that today it constitutes an integral part of the Republican pact? ... In addition France is the only European country to accord it such an elevated legal status. Several of our neighbours are still very far indeed from French political philosophy."

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