He
had earlier on Thursday received the Lord Jakobovits Prize,
awarded to European heads of state who fight against
antisemitism, at the palace.
But a short video clip later published on social media that also
shows France's Chief Rabbi Haïm Korsia lighting the first candle
at the Elysee as Macron watches, stirred the controversy.
France's laws on state secularism, passed in 1905, give everyone
in France the freedom to worship as they wish, but specify that
religion should play no part in the running of the state.
Hard-left Les Insoumis party deputy Manuel Bompard wrote on
social network X: "Saturday, we are celebrating the anniversary
date of the 1905 law on the separation of Churches and State.
Macron is trampling it when organizing a religious ceremony at
the Elysee. An unforgivable political fault."
Even Yonathan Arfi, president of the Jewish Council in France,
described the ceremony as "a mistake".
"It is not the place of the Elysee to light a Hanukkah candle,
because the Republican DNA is to stay away from anything
religious. This is not traditionally the role of the public
authorities," said on Sud Radio.
Macron told reporters during a visit to Notre-Dame Cathedral in
Paris on Friday that he did not regret his gesture, adding he
was "respectful of secularism" but that "secularism is not about
wiping out religions".
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also defended Macron's gesture,
saying it was intended to "show support" of the Jewish community
at a time of mounting antisemitism in France.
Macron's decision not to attend a Nov. 12 march to condemn a
surge in antisemitic acts in France since the Oct. 7 Hamas
attack on Israel and the resulting conflict in Gaza, had raised
questions at the time.
David Lismard, the LR conservative mayor of Cannes and head of
the French Mayors Association said: "How can one refuse to
participate in a civic march against antisemitism on the
incongruous and fallacious grounds of safeguarding national
unity, and celebrate a religious holiday in the presidential
palace?"
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by
Benoit Van Overstraeten and Alison Williams)
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