France’s National Rally has said it intends to impose financial penalties on women who wear the Islamic hijab in public if the far-right party comes to power in 2027.
MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy, one of Marine Le Pen’s senior allies in the presidential race, said on Sunday, 30 August, that the party plans to “impose a fine” for wearing the Islamic headscarf in public if Le Pen wins the presidency.
Tanguy said the proposal had been discussed extensively within the National Rally before being formally adopted.
Speaking to French broadcaster BFMTV, he said: “We will of course fight Islamist ideology and we will punish the wearing of the hijab, in solidarity with all women around the world who are forced to wear it and who die for this freedom.”
The remarks triggered widespread anger across political and media circles and on social media.
Many commentators argued that France is facing major crises on several fronts and stands on the edge of economic stagnation, yet the priority of the far right and Marine Le Pen, as they put it, remains the hijab.
Others questioned whether the proposed restriction would apply only to the Islamic headscarf or whether other religious head coverings would also be banned, arguing that the proposal demonstrated what they viewed as the danger the National Rally poses to French society.
Critics Say the Proposal Conflicts With Human Rights Protections
Journalist Ilan Gabet said the proposed measure was “incompatible with Article 10 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which is one of the pillars of our Republic”.
He added that the proposal also conflicts with the European Convention on Human Rights, arguing that Marine Le Pen would theoretically have to abolish the declaration and withdraw France from the European convention if she wanted to implement such a law.
Gabet accused Le Pen of being “prepared to insult republican history and hang France out to dry on the European stage in order to attack Muslim women”, describing her as “a danger to our Republic”.
Bastien Lachaud, an MP representing Seine-Saint-Denis, including Aubervilliers and Pantin, also condemned the National Rally’s position.
He said the party was using “Islamophobic and racist rhetoric” and advancing what he described as a “violently discriminatory project”.
Lachaud said the proposal amounted to “an authoritarian project that contradicts all the fundamental principles of our Republic, from the Constitution to secularism and public freedoms”.
He also criticised media outlets that, in his view, were giving the proposal space and discussing it calmly “as though it were normal”.
He described this as “a symbol of the drift affecting a large part of the media and political class, which for years has contributed to entrenching and spreading hate speech and bears a heavy and intolerable responsibility”.
Lachaud warned that such statements were “not empty words”, but rhetoric that legitimised discrimination and racist and Islamophobic violence and “destroys human lives”.
He said that if the National Rally came to power, such policies could amount to persecution for millions of innocent people.
“France for the French”
Activists also argued that the National Rally “remains a racist party”, challenging those who had believed otherwise.
They warned that if Marine Le Pen reached power, Muslim women could be prohibited from wearing the hijab in the street.
Some described the proposal as “complete madness”, saying it reflected hostility towards Islam and people of immigrant backgrounds and arguing that little had changed since Jean-Marie Le Pen and his well-known slogan: “France for the French”.
Other commentators questioned the contradiction they saw in claiming to defend women’s freedom while legally preventing Muslim women from choosing what they wear.
“Preventing Muslim women from wearing what they want? Do you realise what that means?” one line of criticism asked. “It is a racist measure and deeply humiliating to women. France, the famous country of human rights, would become the only country in the world to ban women from wearing the hijab. Is this the country you want?”
