Paris (Reuters) – During a visit to the Notre-Dame de Paris construction site one year before the reopening of the cathedral, President Emmanuel Macron recalled on Friday that he was “respectful of secularism”, after a controversy broke out around a candle lit at the Elysée in his presence for the Hanouka celebration.
“The President of the Republic that I am is respectful of secularism,” declared Emmanuel Macron on the cathedral construction site.
“Secularism does not mean erasing religions or interfering in the life of religions. But it is asking, whatever each person’s religion, that citizens absolutely respect the laws of the Republic,” added Emmanuel Macron.
The Head of State attended the lighting of a Hanouka candle in the Elysée presidential palace on Thursday, during a ceremony of the Conference of European Rabbis.
A video of this ceremony was broadcast on social networks and attracted numerous criticisms against the French president, accused of attacking secularism.
Manuel Bompard, coordinator of France Insoumise, denounced “an unforgivable political mistake” on X.
Yonathan Arfi, the president of Crif, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, said on Friday at Sud Radio that the lighting of a Hanouka candle at the Elysée was “an error which should not have happened. produce”.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, writing by Zhifan Liu, editing by Kate Entringer)
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