French election issues shape up

THE separation of church and state is shaping up as an early hot-button issue for France’s next presidential election as rival politicians begin jockeying for votes among the large Muslim minority.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the ambitious interior minister already planning his campaign for the 2007 contest, staked out the issue last week by appointing a commission to study possible changes to the law dividing the spiritual and temporal spheres.

President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin fired back at the weekend, reaffirming their support for the 100-year-old law on secularism and announcing a change “is not on the agenda”.

On Sunday, Mr Villepin said: “Any review must respect this law strictly.”

The 1905 law has such wide support many French see the official neutrality it created as a pillar of their democracy. But it was passed before Muslims began migrating there in large numbers.

While public money subsidises everything from big companies to small clubs in France, the law bars any direct public help for building houses of worship.

Philosopher Marcel Gauchet, said: “This is a problem of electoral strategy, confronting one electorate against another”.

But Muslim leaders such as Dalil Boubakeur did not believe breaking taboos was the way to get subsidies for building mosques, and that “other responses could be found within the framework of the 1905 law”.

The Catholic Church officially opposes any change in the law. French Jewish leaders have also warned against rocking the boat.

The tiny Protestant Federation of France is the only long-established religious community urging change, mostly because the growing ranks of evangelicals also face administrative problems trying to build churches.