© Reuters
Six months into his presidency, Emmanuel Macron looks untouchable. He has conquered the unions, and his political opponents are a shambles - none more so than the Socialists. Just how divided they are was demonstrated earlier this month when a vicious war of words erupted within the French left. The cause was Islam, an issue that has been agitating Socialists for decades. When the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic, François Mitterrand, was elected in 1981, his government was initially a friend of Islam.
As the eighties wore on though, some on the left became alarmed at the demands being made of the Republic: prayer rooms in factories and the right to pray five times a day were particular sticking points. Pierre Mauroy, who served as prime minister during this period, denounced the growing influence of Islam in the workplace, prompting the left-wing newspaper
Liberation to
warn that such statements were 'the slippery slope to racism'.
This fault line has remained in the Socialist party ever since, causing occasional tremors of disunity, such as the 1989 headscarf row, and the 2004 ban on religious symbols in schools. The attack on the offices of
Charlie Hebdo in 2015 caused the ideological plates to shift again. On one side stands the satirical magazine's supporters, like the former Socialist prime minister, Manuel Valls, and the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut; on the other, the 'Islamo-gauchistes',
led by Edwy Plenel, the former editor of
Le Monde, who believes that French Muslims are institutionally victimised and that those who criticise their religion - such as the
author Michel Houellebecq - are guilty of Islamophobia.
Comment: And Varoufakis is one to know about horrible negotiations with the EU!
See also: