Marine Le Pen Accuses Jean-Luc Mélenchon and LFI of Subcontracting Islamist Ideology

Abaya ban sparks clash

In France’s 2027 presidential race, Marine Le Pen accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France insoumise (LFI) of being “the subcontractors of Islamist ideology” after Mathilde Panot said her party would revisit the school ban on the abaya. Le Pen’s reaction on X followed Panot’s BFMTV intervention, where Panot called the ban “absurd” and cited images of “two young girls arriving with exactly the same dress bought at exactly the same place, but since one looked Arab she was denied entry,” and not the other.

The dispute is framed against the 2004 law that bans ostentatious religious symbols at school, and Gabriel Attal argued that LFI does not want to repeal only the abaya measure but instead “repeal the 2004 law and reintroduce all religious symbols, including the veil, into our schools.” While the controversy centers on the abaya ban introduced at the start of the 2024 school year, Le Monde reports that Mélenchon did not directly comment, and notes that he had previously said in a speech to activists that “those who are Muslims and doctors of the faith have said that the abaya is not an Islamist garment.”

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Reactions from Philippe

Édouard Philippe joined the attack from the center bloc, telling reporters in Alès in the Gard department that the proposal to revisit the school ban amounts to “a betrayal of secularism,” and saying he was “consternated that someone who calls themselves left-wing could betray and trample on the principle of laïcité, and, moreover, in schools.” Philippe’s remarks were part of a broader campaign exchange in which Le Pen also accused the “far left” of wanting to “instill everywhere the poison of the communautariste” and to “stir up the competition of identitarian demands to the detriment of the national community.”

On the left, Danièle Obono argued on BFMTV that the abaya ban “is discrimination,” asserting that “All religious authorities have explained that there is no religious significance to the abaya,” as Le Monde reports. Le Monde also describes how Manon Aubry echoed the argument on BFMTV, saying the French Council of the Muslim Worship “says itself that the abaya is not necessarily a religious garment,” and adding that she was “still astonished” by “a form of hunt for Muslims in the public debate, in the media debate, which seems unbearable to me.”

Reporting for this sectionLe Monde.frLe Parisien

What’s at stake next

The dispute is also tied to how often secularism-related incidents appear in schools, with the Regards protestants report citing a Ministry of National Education statistics note published in February that during the 2024-2025 school year only 4% of serious incidents reported in schools, colleges, and high schools were related to attacks on secularism.

Even as the abaya debate is portrayed as politically explosive, the same report says Ségolène Royal opposed reopening it, telling BFMTV: “It’s been settled, the abaya is banned. Reopening this debate again about women’s clothing, to argue about this issue, no,” and adding: “It is a stress for teachers, these permanent changes.”

In the same campaign context, Le Monde reports that Mélenchon has acknowledged “changed his mind” on the issue of wearing the Islamic veil and said he had committed a “terrible mistake” when he opposed it.

With the abaya now treated as a presidential battleground, the controversy continues to draw direct exchanges on X and on BFMTV, including Le Pen’s claim that “Mélenchon and LFI have become the subcontractors of Islamist ideology that is taking French Muslims hostage,” and Attal’s insistence that the Insoumis aim to “repeal the 2004 law and reintroduce all religious symbols, including the veil, into our schools.”

Reporting for this sectionRegards protestants