how the president and his teams managed and tried to debunk the controversy

Emmanuel Macron is attacked by the opposition after a ceremony in the evening of Thursday, December 7 at the Élysée which caused controversy. Alongside the president, the Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia lit a candle for Hanukkah. It’s about a “attack on secularism”of a “political misconduct”, denounced the oppositions from the right to the left. From Notre-Dame de Paris, in the morning of Friday December 8, the Head of State spoke of a ceremony “in a spirit which is that of the Republic and concord”.

For almost 24 hours, the president and his teams have been trying to debunk the controversy. “This is not an attack on secularism”, this message began to be hammered out late in the evening on Thursday, December 7, and it has not changed. From the outset, the president’s advisers made it clear: just as when he was present at a mass, Emmanuel Macron attended a religious event, he did not participate. Indeed, the head of state stood in the background, a frozen smile.

As Emmanuel Macron did at midday, his entourage clarified above all that this was not the purpose of the ceremony, which was not on the agenda. This reception was held to present an award to Emmanuel Macron for his commitment against anti-Semitism and it was to thank him that the chief rabbi lit a Hanukkah candle. This therefore implies that the president has nothing to do with it.

One question remains: is it consistent with secularism for a religious act, whatever it may be, to take place at the Élysée? To this, Emmanuel Macron like his advisors took care not to respond. Yet this is the heart of the matter. “This is the first time that the president has organized a religious ceremony at the Élysée”underlines on franceinfo the historian Patrick Weil who sees “a break with republican tradition”.