Why Europe’s Muslims are braced for France’s stint running the EU presidency

There is concern that the country’s divisive anti-Muslim political discourse will seep into the union’s institutional policymaking, writes Shada Islam

French President Emmanuel Macron. The French election campaign essentially means it is open season on Muslims in France.

FRANCE has taken over the rotating EU presidency for the next six months, an opportunity the president, Emmanuel Macron, will no doubt use to nudge Europe towards his goal of greater “strategic autonomy” in the world. Some in Brussels worry that hotly contested presidential elections in April could interfere with France’s EU presidency before a key conference on the future of Europe delivers any results. It’s not reassuring that Macron’s decision, temporarily, to fly the blue and gold EU flag at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris has already drawn the fury of far-right and conservative election candidates.

But many European Muslims are concerned about the French stint in the EU chair for another reason: They fear that France’s divisive anti-Muslim political discourse will seep dangerously into EU policymaking.