French PM seeks to mend cabinet rift over hijab in sport

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 Islamic 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 center-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.

"If we want to let Le Pen defend secularism on her own, we could not do a better job," he added.

Education Minister Elisabeth Borne, herself a former prime minister, had said on Monday that it was "the responsibility of (sports) federations to define their internal regulations".

Currently, some sports -- notably football and basketball -- forbid women from wearing the hijab, while others -- like handball -- allow it in competition.

Sports Minister Marie Barsacq has repeatedly expressed her reservations, warning against "confusion" and "conflating" the wearing of a headscarf with radicalization in sport.

In a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Bayrou lashed out at "unacceptable internal criticism" between ministers and vowed to restore "good order", a participant told AFP.

He later summoned key ministers to a meeting, emphasizing that the government's policy was to back the legislation going through parliament, according to another participant.

The bill adopted in February by the upper-house Senate, which is controlled by the right, proposes to ban the wearing of religious symbols, including the hijab, in all sporting competitions, including at amateur level.

"There is only one government line, and that is the one supported by the prime minister... it is support for the" Senate bill, Equality Minister Aurore Berge told the lower-house National Assembly, which is yet to debate the legislation.

She described it is part of a "determined fight against all forms of Islamist infiltration".