French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Tuesday, March 16, sought to impose unity on his government as a top minister threatened to resign over whether women should be allowed to wear the Islamic headscarf in sports competitions.
Currently, it is up to individual sports federations in France to decide whether women can wear the hijab in competition. But legislation is going through Parliament to completely religious symbols, including the hijab, in professional and amateur competition.
Cabinet unity in Bayrou’s minority government, which tilts to the right but also has some figures from a center-left background, has crumbled in recent days with the sports minister and education minister expressing discomfort with the legislation.
On Tuesday, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, a right-wing former interior minister and one of the highest-profile cabinet ministers, said he was prepared to resign if the government gave ground on the issue. “I cannot remain in a government that gives in on these issues. I am not participating in that,” he told the newspaper Le Parisien.
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Darmanin has repeatedly warned that far-right leader Marine Le Pen risks winning 2027 presidential elections if the French are not reassured on social issues. “If we want to let Le Pen defend secularism on her own, we could not do a better job,” he added.
Bayrou: ‘Unacceptable internal criticism’
Education Minister Elisabeth Borne, herself a former prime minister, had said on Monday that it was “the responsibility of [sports] federations to define their internal regulations.” Currently, some sports, notably football and basketball, forbid women from wearing the hijab, while others, like handball, allow it in competition. Sports Minister Marie Barsacq has repeatedly expressed her reservations, warning against “confusion” and “conflating” the wearing of a headscarf with radicalization in sport.
In a closed-door coalition meeting Tuesday morning, Bayrou lashed out at “unacceptable internal criticism” between ministers and vowed to restore “good order,” a participant told Agence France-Presse. He later summoned key ministers to another meeting, emphasizing that the government’s policy was to back the legislation going through parliament, according to another participant.
