The title of the new post conveyed the message that if national identity were in trouble immigrants were the source. It followed a year in which President Sarkozy included a minister of immigration and national identity in his cabinet. Banning the burqa on the eve of the Fête Nationale provided a clear affirmation of true Frenchness. The national assembly's action came on July 13, as the country prepared to celebrate the birth of republican democracy in the revolution of 1789. It is part of a cynical bid by Sarkozy and his party to capture the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim animus that has brought electoral gains to the rightwing National Front party and to disarm the Socialist opposition, which has so far offered little resistance to the xenophobic campaign. Outlawing what the French call " le voile intégral" is part of a campaign to purify and protect national identity, purging so-called foreign elements – although many of these "foreigners" are actually French citizens – from membership in the nation.
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