The debate on the ban on wearing the veil in public spaces returns with the declarations of National Rally MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy on Sunday evening, and the message written on X by Marine Le Pen on Monday evening. The candidate for the Élysée proposed, like Jordan Bardella a little earlier in the day, a referendum on the subject.

Published on: 08/31/2026 - 5:13 p.m. Modified on: 09/01/2026 - 7:35 a.m.

Marine Le Pen's historic proposal, the ban on wearing the Islamic veil in public, is put back on the table by the candidate of the National Rally who promises, if she gains access to the Élysée, a referendum which would lead to a criminal sanction.

“I will submit to the French by referendum a major law to combat Islamist ideologies with many powerful measures, including the penalization of the Islamist veil in public spaces,” declared on X, Monday August 31 in the evening, Marine Le Pen.

The promise, the feasibility of which raises questions without constitutional change, was relaunched on Sunday by one of his close friends, the Somme deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy.

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“If there are women who wear the veil when it is prohibited, they will be fined”, in the same way as “people who do not wear seat belts” in the car, he said on BFMTV. “Behind this symbol, it is not only freedom of dress, it is an ideology which is contrary to what France has carried for years.”

The proposal is far from new for Marine Le Pen, who was in favor of it since her first presidential campaign in 2012.

She still supported her ten years later during the debate between the two rounds against Emmanuel Macron. “It’s about liberating women, pushing back Islamist ideology,” she assured.

His own camp has nevertheless been quite cautious in the past about the applicability of the measure, the constitutionality of which calls into question: "It does not happen overnight", estimated the boss of the RN Jordan Bardella in 2025, recognizing that "the application is complicated".

Marine Le Pen also ended up conceding that it was a “complex problem” requiring gradual implementation.

“Despicable”, says Mélenchon

The return of this question to the political debate comes as the RN candidate has developed several markers of lepenism in recent days, such as retirement at 60 for employees who started working very early.

The veil proposal sparked criticism from the central bloc and the left. Jean-Luc Mélenchon described it as “despicable”. This party “once again demonstrates that it has not changed and pours out its sexist and Islamophobic obsessions,” the candidate from La France insoumise wrote on X.

“There are obvious reservations both about the constitutionality and the applicability of such a measure,” noted government spokesperson Maud Bregeon after the Council of Ministers on Monday.

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Horizons presidential candidate, Édouard Philippe called for "respecting" the current laws on the ban on the veil at school and the ban on the full veil, believing that the "principle of religious freedom" present in the Constitution does not change "as each person wishes".

For the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, "we never liberate a woman by forbidding her to choose." “Behind the discourse of so-called emancipation lies, once again, the stigmatization of millions of French Muslim women,” he lamented.

The Union of French Muslim Democrats (UDMF), a party which claims to be "left-wing", denounced X as a "demagogic and ridiculous" idea.

Not a “clothing police”

Questioned early in the afternoon near the RN headquarters, Jordan Bardella was cautious. In the event of victory in 2027, the RN would submit several referendums: the first on immigration, then, "during the five-year term, a second on the question of Islamist ideology", he declared.

This second referendum will contain "many" measures and not just the ban on the veil, he said, without clearly mentioning whether this would involve the introduction of fixed fines.

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“It is not a question of establishing a clothing police,” said Jordan Bardella, while ensuring that he remained in favor of the ban, currently in force, on conspicuous religious symbols in schools, being extended to the entire “public sphere”.

The vice-president of the RN, Sébastien Chenu, gave a similar speech in the morning on LCI, believing that "to curb radical Islam, indeed, we consider that the police are the arm of the State".

With AFP

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