Macron government doubles down on right-wing attack on French universities
Following the adoption of the “anti-separatist” law in the French National Assembly, Higher Education Minister Frédérique Vidal has continued to defend the government’s measures announced over the past week to bring universities into line with the law. Vidal proposed to investigate all university research in France and to take action against academics guilty of supposed “separatism” and “Islamo-leftism.”
Vidal’s proposal highlights the anti-democratic character of the “anti-separatism” law. It restricts religious freedom, overriding the 1905 secularism law in France. It contains a far-reaching attack on the right to association, as all associations are kept under constant threat of dissolution for the actions of their members. In the context of universities, the law is now being used to impose the political criteria of the extreme right on academic researchers.