Watch Le Pen Face Off With Hijab-clad Women at Campaign Stop in Southeast France

© REUTERS / Charles PlatiauMarine Le Pen of France's National Front (FN) political party at the opening session of the French National Assembly in Paris, France, June 27, 2017
Marine Le Pen of France's National Front (FN) political party at the opening session of the French National Assembly in Paris, France, June 27, 2017 - Sputnik International, 1920, 15.04.2022
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The National Rally politician, who placed second in the first round of France’s presidential elections last week, has promised to ban hijabs in public places, complete with a cash fine for those who disobey, if elected president.
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen faced off with a pair of hijab-clad Muslim women during a surprise campaign stop in Pertuis in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region of southeastern France on Friday.
Mingling with potential voters at a busy food market, Le Pen was confronted by an elderly woman wearing a white veil, who asked the candidate what business the headscarf had in politics.
“You know full well that there are neighbourhoods where women who don’t wear the headscarf are put aside, they are isolated, they are judged because they don’t wear the veil. I don’t want a single woman to be judged because she refuses,” Le Pen said as cameras, bodyguards, supporters and detractors swarmed her and her interlocutor.
“No, for me it is a sign of being a grandmother,” the woman retorted, with Le Pen tilting her head back and laughing. The woman explained that she was the daughter of a French army veteran who served in the military for 15 years, and that she began wearing the veil as an elderly woman.
“But you see that there are sometimes little girls who are made to wear the veil,” Le Pen interjected. The woman agreed. “I am against this,” she said. The woman suggested that a modern veil and modern outfits were needed for Muslim women. The exchange ended cordially, with Le Pen smiling, waving and walking away.
Shortly after, another elderly Muslim woman confronted the candidate. “We are of Algerian origin but we are French. Not just on paper, we love this country,” the woman said.
“All French people, no matter their origin, their religion, their name, I fight for them,” Le Pen said. The candidate insisted that the headscarf was “a uniform imposed over time by people who have a radical vision of Islam.”
Often painted by adversaries as a Muslim-hater and a far-right racist, Le Pen has consistently expressed support for “the constitutional principle of secularism” in French society, marking her opposition to using public money to support any religious institution or denomination, whether it be Christian, Muslim or other. She has also expressed concerns about the “Islamisation of French society,” saying that she is opposes to Sharia Law, and asking that foreigners who make France their home respect local laws and customs.
Le Pen said that “people will be given a fine” for wearing Muslim headscarves in public places “in the same way that it is illegal to not wear your seatbelt” in an automobile. She expressed confidence that police would be “very much able to enforce this measure.”
Marine Le Pen, file photo. - Sputnik International, 1920, 07.04.2022
Marine Le Pen Promises to Ban Wearing Hijabs in Public If She Becomes President of France
Along with the pair of veil-wearing women, Le Pen was also confronted in Pertuis by a lesbian woman asking whether she would seek to take away her rights, and by a couple waving a Ukrainian flag and shouting “Crimea is Ukraine!” – a response to Le Pen’s suggestion that Paris “recognise the integration of Crimea into Russia.” Passersby also shouted anti-fascist slogans at the National Rally candidate, with some singing the Marseillaise.
At the end of the gruelling meet and greet, Le Pen suggested that the invective she faced was “proportional to the chances” she has in “winning this election.”
French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) presidential candidate Marine Le Pen takes part in the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, on April 12, 2022. - Sputnik International, 1920, 13.04.2022
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Headscarves are already banned in French government buildings. Le Pen’s challenger in the upcoming election runoff, incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, has softened his position on wearing of veils in public, saying that for him, “the question of the headscarf is not an obsession.” In 2020, he suggested that the head coverings were corrosive to French society and that they artificially “divide men and women.”
French voters will pick between Macron and Le Pen in a runoff vote scheduled for 24 April after selecting the pair from among over a dozen candidates in the first round last week. The incumbent took 27.85 percent of the vote, while Le Pen trailed with 23.15 percent. Third place finisher Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France Insoumise party took 21.95 percent, with Macron and Le Pen supporters presently lobbying for his voters. Melenchon himself has asked supporters “not to give a single vote” to Le Pen, but has not endorsed Macron. An Odoxa poll taken 12-15 April found Macron edging out Le Pen in the second round by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.
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