Far-right candidate for the second round of the French presidential elections scheduled for Sunday, Marine Le Pen, confirmed her intention to ban the Islamic headscarf in public places if elected.
Le Pen’s speech came in a television debate with her rival, the outgoing president, Emmanuel Macron, on Wednesday evening, who accused Le Pen of pushing for a “civil war” in France because of her desire to ban the headscarf.
Le Pen said she was sticking to her controversial idea of banning the Islamic headscarf, which she considers “a uniform imposed by Islamists”.
But she stressed that she “does not fight Islam,” and Macron responded by saying, “You will cause a civil war. I say that honestly.”
In the debate, the Ukrainian file also emerged, as Le Pen said that she supports a “free Ukraine” and independent at the same time from the United States, the European Union and Russia.
But Macron accused her of being financially dependent on Russia because of a loan she obtained from a Russian bank. Le Pen responded by denying this accusation sharply, stressing that she is a “completely and absolutely free woman”, and justifying her recourse to the Russian bank that no French bank agreed to give her a loan.
Two worldviews collide between pro-European Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen, who has promised to reduce the “powers” of the European Union in favor of the “nation state”.
Marine Le Pen supports a “strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia” when the Russian-Ukrainian war ends with a “peace treaty”.