MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Daniele Obono, a Gabon-born lawmaker from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise, argued at a talk show on Sunday that a bus driver refusing to take the wheel after a woman has touched it was not an example of a radicalized behavior.
"This is more than enabling, this is complicity with political Islam," Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the broadcaster RTL, when asked about Obono's statement.
According to the former prime minister, "the issue of enabling political Islam… should not be treated lightly and some portion of the left has failed in that respect."
The bill has caused worry among human rights organizations, with UN experts expressing concern over the "vague wording" of the definitions of terrorism and threats to national security.
The French National Assembly, the lower chamber of the parliament, will vote on the bill later on Tuesday. French President Macron's pro-European centrist La Republique en Marche party, which controls a simple majority in the National Assemby, supports the proposed legislation.
France has suffered several terrorist attacks in the last few years. Most recently, two women were stabbed to death in Marseille on Sunday, although police haven't confirmed if religious extremists were responsible.
