In a decisive vote, French senators have passed a bill targeting “Islamist infiltration,” which includes harsher penalties for offenses against Republican ideals, stricter monitoring of mosques, and the freezing of assets belonging to Islamist separatist entities.
Personally, I have no problem with Islam in France, but I will fight against those who use it to attack our Republic.
France’s upper house of parliament voted 208 to 124 on May 5 to approve the bill introduced by former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to combat what he describes as a clandestine movement whose “ultimate objective” is the “establishment of an Islamic state” in France.
On March 16, Retailleau tabled the bill in the Senate and defended the proposed law as a measure to ward off the “lasting and structured ideological threat” of “political Islamism,” which he said is “characterized by concealment, ambiguity, and the manipulation of civil liberties.”
“This strategy of infiltration, historically developed by the Muslim Brotherhood since its creation in 1928, pursues a constant objective: to reshape society to make it compatible with a fundamentalist and political interpretation of Islam,” Retailleau told senators.
Harsher Penalties and Stricter Monitoring
The bill cites as its rationale the Interior Ministry’s May 2025 report on the Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islam in France, which spotlights Islamist networks seeking to create a separatist state, and a November 2025 survey by the French Institute of Opinion Polls (IFOP), which reveals that a majority of Muslims aged 15 to 24 now privilege Sharia law over French law.
The proposed law creates a new criminal offense for anyone who, “in a concerted manner, within a public or private body or de facto group, works to induce that body or group to make decisions or adopt practices contrary to legally established rules, with the aim of seriously undermining the principles of the Republic.” Violators could face “five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros.”
The legislation also dramatically expands the French state’s authority to monitor, restrict, and dissolve organizations suspected of promoting separatism or religious extremism. The bill allows authorities to block the construction or expansion of mosques if officials believe the project would pose “a particularly serious threat to public safety and order.” It further authorizes the Interior and Economy ministries to freeze the assets of groups accused of inciting violence, promoting discrimination, or undermining “the integrity of the national territory” or “the republican form of government.” The proposal specifically targets organizations that “invoke or encourage others to invoke their religious opinions to free themselves from legally established common rules.
It further empowers authorities to oppose the construction or extension of mosques and to shut down mosques “when there are serious reasons to believe that such construction or extension would constitute a particularly serious threat to public safety and order.”
Article 6, which addresses the funding of separatist organizations, further defines these organizations as entities that discriminate against or display hatred or violence toward persons on account of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or membership in a particular race or religion.
In a bid to curb the radicalization of minors, the bill strengthens existing laws on the protection of minors, imposing a prison sentence of two years and a fine of 30,000 euros on those who threaten to compromise or threaten the health, safety, or physical or mental well-being of minors “outside the parental home.”
Too Late?
“The step taken in France is a welcome one, but unfortunately too late and really just a reaction to a long, and mainly demographic, process that the ruling elite has thrust upon its people,” Kent Ekeroth, a former Sweden Democrats MP, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI).
“Even if the bill can help to postpone infiltration, corruption, and disrupt some economic activities of Islamist organizations, in the long run, the problem is a demographic one, and without a mass-remigration, it will merely be a small bump on the road for Islamist ambitions,” Ekeroth, who has written for FWI, observed.
Opposition from Left-Wing Parties
Senators from left-wing parties and parliamentarians allied with President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party voted against the bill, denouncing it as “Islamophobic,” “liberty-destroying,” and unconstitutional.
Patrick Kanner, leader of the opposition in the Senate and president of the upper house’s Socialist, Ecologist, and Republican group (Groupe Socialiste, Écologiste et Républicain), attacked the bill as a “political pamphlet.”
“The Republican right is no longer defined by its values, but by its drift towards copying the excesses of the far right,” Communist senator Ian Brossat complained, noting that the bill “will create widespread suspicion.”
Downplaying the Islamist thrust of the legislation, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told reporters that the proposed law “targets infiltration without necessarily referring solely to Islamism.”
“Personally, I have no problem with Islam in France, but I will fight against those who use it to attack our Republic,” Nuñez, who is drafting his own law against separatism and infiltration, remarked.
Critics Raise Concerns Over Freedom of Expression
Responding to Nuñez, right-wing politician Marion Maréchal warned that the “particularly alarming” legislation is “a major threat to freedom of expression” because it seeks to prosecute anyone who is fighting homosexuality, transgenderism, or unrestricted immigration.
Maréchal, a member of the European Parliament, said that the bill, “under the cover of fighting Islamic entryism,” would give the Macron government “exorbitant powers to persecute individuals and organizations that refuse migrant submersion, Islamization, or woke propaganda.”
Amid the ensuing controversy, Pierre-Marie Sève, director of the Institute for Justice think-tank, commented: “The Minister of the Interior says it himself: the law against Islamic infiltration is ‘very broad’ and in fact targets all opposition. If this text is passed, and a dictator seizes power, he wouldn’t even need to change the law to repress his opponents.”
Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, echoed Maréchal’s concerns. “The fight against Islamist entryism and separatism is a vital priority for preserving the Republic and the Nation,” he noted. “But Article 6 of the proposed bill aimed at combating Islamist entryism confuses the issues and becomes dangerously liberticidal.”
“Based on extremely broad and vague notions of ‘hate,’ ‘discrimination,’ or ‘propagation of ideas,’ the administration will be able to freeze the funds and economic resources of any natural or legal person, based on mere ideological suspicions, without prior judicial intervention,” he explained. “This article thus far exceeds the fight against Islamism.”
But Will it Pass National Assembly?
For the bill to become law, it must now secure approval from France’s lower house, the National Assembly. However, it is still too early for the legislation to be placed on the chamber’s agenda.
The National Assembly’s fragmented political landscape, with its multitude of parties and shifting alliances, makes the outcome highly uncertain. Left-wing parties hold significant numerical strength and are expected to oppose the measure, while divisions on the right—particularly discomfort with the broad scope of Article 6—could further erode support. As a result, passage remains far from guaranteed.
