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Chapter 10 - La Fille Ainée de l’Église? Christianism and Secularism in the French Populist Right

from Part III - French Catholicism, the Rassemblement National and Laïcité

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2023

Tobias Cremer
Tobias Cremer
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Chapter 10 examines the French far rights references to both Catholicism and laïcité in greater detail. Based on several dozen interviews with right-wing populist politicians, mainstream party representatives and faith leaders it reveals how the French far right rediscovered both religion and secularism as political wedge-issues and cultural identity markers against Islam. However, instead of a rapprochement with Christian policy positions, ethics and institutions, Chapter 10 finds open clashes between the Rassemblement National and Zemmour on the one hand and Frances Catholic Church on the other over social policy, the populist right’s identitarian conception of Christendom, and its secularist reading of laïcité, all of which suggested a further secularisation of Christian symbols in the hands of the populist right rather than a Catholic revival in French politics.

Keywords

Rassemblement nationalLe PenÉric ZemmourCatholic Churchlaïcitésecularismneo-paganismIslamimmigration
Type
Chapter
Information
The Godless Crusade
Religion, Populism and Right-Wing Identity Politics in the West
 , pp. 139 - 155
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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