Overview
- A photo published by the identitarian outlet Frontières showed school chaperones and young girls wearing headscarves in the National Assembly’s visitors’ tribunes during public budget debates.
- Right‑wing and nationalist deputies, including Eddy Casterman and Julien Odoul, labeled the scene a provocation and urged Assembly President Yaël Braun‑Pivet to respond.
- Braun‑Pivet said it was inacceptable for young children to wear ostentatious religious signs at the heart of the Assembly and called for extreme vigilance to prevent a recurrence.
- Left‑wing LFI deputies accused her of validating an ultra‑right narrative and instrumentalizing laïcité, while RN leader Jordan Bardella advocated a stricter approach by invoking school rules.
- Assembly guidance requires visitors to be properly dressed and uncovered, yet a 2019 communication allows flexible enforcement unless order is disrupted, and no immediate sanctions or policy changes were reported.