Overview
- An identitarian outlet, Frontières, published a photo showing veiled girls in the visitors’ gallery during budget debates, triggering a political row.
- Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet called the presence of conspicuous religious signs on children in the chamber galleries “inacceptable” and urged “extreme vigilance,” with no formal rule change announced.
- Marc Fesneau said his parliamentary team organized the school outing as a civics project, noted that minors may wear the veil in public, and asked for clearer, stricter application of Article 8 with advance briefings for visitors.
- Left-wing deputies, joined by Green leader Marine Tondelier, accused authorities of fueling islamophobia and pointed out that the Assembly’s practice has allowed religious dress unless it disrupts order.
- RN-aligned figures labeled the sight a provocation and pressed the presidency, as attention shifts to clarifying how visitor dress rules will be applied going forward.