REUTERS - Prime Minister Francois Fillon will not participate on April 5 at the convention organized by the UMP on secularism, Matignon said Wednesday, adding that the decision had been taken long-standing agreement with Nicolas Sarkozy.
"He was fulfilling a long with the president that he would not go," they say at Matignon, confirming information given by the website of Le Figaro.
"This is not the place to express the government's position," says one in the entourage of Prime Minister.
The secretary general of the UMP Jean-Francois Cope had nevertheless invited the Prime Minister in this debate, says the website of Le Figaro.
François Fillon and Jean-Francois Cope had formally signed the peace on Tuesday, after the tensions caused by criticism of the secretary general of the UMP to the Prime Minister.
The "boss" of the majority party had accused the prime minister not to "play group" in distancing himself from the debate on secularism.
In an interview with Le Figaro, to be published Thursday, Jean-Francois Cope defends again organizing this debate controversial and arouses opposition from representatives of six major religions.
"When we have this debate on April 5, we finish with the hysteria of the debate on the debate leading finally to the real answers," he said.
"This debate will not give rise to confusion." My letter to a Muslim friend, published yesterday in L'Express, is the most honest answer to the fear of a possible drift, "he adds.
