Former Interior Minister Retailleau outlined his campaign pledges for next year’s presidential election in France in remarks to BFMTV.
Retailleau said he would ban headscarves during sports activities, on school trips and at universities if he wins the election. Advocating for the ban to apply in public spaces, Retailleau said security forces would not be able to easily distinguish between women who wear headscarves for ideological reasons and those who wear them because of health problems such as cancer.
Retailleau said he wanted to reduce immigration and promised, if elected president, to add a statement to the Constitution affirming that France has Jewish-Christian roots and to dissolve organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Attal opposes headscarf ban
Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, the presidential candidate of the center-right Renaissance party, said in remarks to the same channel that he opposed a ban on headscarves in public spaces.
Attal said all women in France should have the right to make their own choices regarding headscarves. Attal, who served as education minister from 2023 to 2024, banned students from wearing long dresses known as abayas in schools in 2023.