“Under the principle of secularism, a single menu is proposed. No substitute meals will be provided except in case of food allergies,” he said. “I am applying the recommendation of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF),” according to Rotger.
The AMF recently published a guide for “secular best practices” which criticised “denominational menus” in canteens. “We are putting in place an operation so that children eat everything and that what is offered is balanced,” Rotger added. “There is too much waste, and we will teach them to eat meat, be it poultry or pork.”
The debate over pork on French school menus or in government canteens has been raging in France. In 2014, the French mayor of Sargé-lès-Le-Mans said that school menus would feature “pork or nothing”.
But Muslim groups have vowed to fight the ban in court. Paul Garrigue, president of a human rights groups that include the League of Human Rights and Amnesty International, slammed the mayor’s announcement as “anti-Muslim”.
“Today, we are talking about secularism in a generally anti-Muslim way,” Garrigue told Heatstreet. “We see secularism as a tool of tolerance and living together and not exclusion.”
Another French mayor, this time from of Mandelieu-La-Napoule, last month called on the fashion chain Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) to prohibit sales personnel from wearing Islamic headscarves. He said he had received repeated complaints from shopkeepers and local citizens who are “embarrassed by the religious attire of your employees”.
Henri Leroy said: “I think it is useful to remind you that the municipality is attached to Republican values and to religious neutrality.” Feïza Ben Mohamed, a candidate in the local elections in the Alpes-Maritimes department accused Leroy of “Islamophobia” and of engaging in a “shameful polemic”.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) meanwhile attacked that new counter-terrorism legislation proposed by the French government, saying it will fuel prejudice against Muslims. President Emmanuel Macron wants to replace temporary emergency powers in place with the new legislation.
“As the text stands, the law could, for instance, be used arbitrarily to prohibit any meeting at which ideas or theological concepts associated with conservative interpretations of Islam, such as Salafism, are expressed regardless of whether there is any demonstrable connection to criminal activity. Poorly worded laws that are likely to lead to closing solely Muslim places of worship may also help feed anti-Muslim rhetoric and prejudice prevalent in wider society,” HRW said.
Macron’s popularity rating has slumped by 10 percentage points this month, according to an Ifop poll on Sunday. It is the biggest decline for a new president since 1995, Reuters reported.
Published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, the poll echoed a similar finding in a recent BVA poll. Macron has had a tough month, after top armed forces chief General Pierre de Villiers resigned over military spending cuts. The general told a high level meeting he was not going to be “fucked” by Macron and announced his resignation soon after.
Macron has overruled his own prime minister by vowing to press ahead with tax cuts in 2018, while also planning to cut housing benefits.
