French politicians across the political spectrum spoke out on Wednesday against what they called an “Islamist” attack against education following the resignation of a school principal who received death threats.
The principal of a high school in eastern Paris quit after receiving online death threats following an argument with students over the Muslim headscarf, officials told AFP.
In late February, he had asked three students to remove their headscarves on school premises and one student refused to comply, leading to an argument, prosecutors said.
The principal stood down for “security reasons,” according to a letter sent to teachers, students, and parents on Tuesday. Education officials said he had taken “early retirement.”
Authorities in 2004 banned school children from wearing “signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation,” including headscarves, turbans, and kippas.
The ban is on the basis of France’s secular laws, meant to guarantee neutrality in state institutions.
A 26-year-old man was arrested for making online death threats against the principal and is scheduled to stand trial in April.
Bruno Retailleau, head of the right-wing Republicans faction in the Senate upper house, called the incident “a disgrace,” in a statement posted to X on Wednesday.
Boris Vallaud, the head of the Socialist deputies in the National Assembly lower house, said the incident was “a collective failure.”
Marion Marechal, a far-right politician and the granddaughter of far-right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen, said there was “a defeat of the state” against “the Islamist gangrene.”
Maud Bregeon, a lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, also blamed “an Islamist movement.”
