PARIS: French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Tuesday sought to impose unity on his government as a top minister threa­tened to resign over whether women should be allowed to wear the headscarf in sports competitions.

Currently, it is up to individual sports federations in France to decide whether women can wear the hijab in competition. But legislation is going through parliament to ban it completely in professional and amateur competition, in a move backers say will shore up France’s strictly secular modern republic.

Cabinet unity in Bayrou’s minority government, which tilts to the right but also has some figures from a centre-left background, has crumbled in recent days with the sports minister and education minister expressing discomfort with the legislation.

On Tuesday, Justice Minister Gerald Darma­nin, a right-wing former interior minister and one of the highest-profile cabinet ministers, said he was prepared to resign if the government gave ground on the issue.

“I cannot remain in a government that gives in on these issues.

I am not participating in that,” he told the newspaper Le Parisien. Darmanin, who supporters see as a possible successor to President Emmanuel Macron, has repeatedly warned that far-right leader Marine Le Pen risks winning 2027 presidential elections if the French are not reassured on social issues.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2025