French Prime Minister François Fillon defended yesterday a debate on "national identity" that was launched by the government but has spiralled out of control, offering a platform for xenophobic views.
Mr Fillon gave an impassioned speech on the subject of "what it means to be French" at a Paris think-tank, standing in for President Nicolas Sarkozy who bailed out citing scheduling difficulties as the debate was turning sour.
"To refuse this debate and stigmatise the idea that the French people have a unique identity amounts to leaving the field open to extremists," Mr Fillon said.
He was echoing Mr Sarkozy's view that traditional parties like the ruling UMP need to reclaim the subject of patriotic pride from the anti-immigrant National Front, which has long presented itself as the champion of a "true France".
But Mr Fillon will struggle to convince government critics and a growing number of sceptics in his own camp that the state-sanctioned debate is a tool against extremism when it has provided a soapbox for anti-immigrant views all over the country.
"National identity: the great embarrassment" was Friday's front-page headline in the Catholic daily La Croix, while the left-wing Liberation spoke of "the right caught in a trap".
Launched on November 2 by Eric Besson, a minister whose portfolio includes both immigration and national identity, the debate consists of public discussions chaired by prefects, who are representatives of the state at the local level.
There is also a website, www.debatidentitenationale.fr, where ordinary French people are encouraged to air their views.
The problem for the government is that the conversation immediately zeroed in on the subject of immigration, and in particular France's difficulties in integrating immigrants from a Muslim background and their children and grandchildren.
This was not helped by news on Sunday that the Swiss had voted by referendum to ban the construction of minarets, drawing a torrent of comments on the official French identity website.
In his speech, Mr Fillon briefly addressed the issues.
"We must combat extremism, but absolutely not Muslims. We must not get everything mixed up," he said.
"As for minarets, which by the way are not very numerous in France, I simply say that they must fit into our urban and social environment in a way that is reasonable and harmonious."
But most of the speech centred on French history, invoking the spirit of a wide range of national heroes from Joan of Arc to Charles de Gaulle and extolling the country's roots.
"Secular and urban, France has nonetheless kept the rhythm of its Christian and rural traditions. It has forgotten neither its villages nor its customs," Mr Fillon said.
Such sentiments were unlikely to placate the debate's critics, including anti-racism groups who have been horrified by some of the views emerging from the villages in question.
"We're going to be swamped. There are already 10 million of them (immigrants) that we're paying to laze around," said Andre Valentin, mayor of the village of Gussainville in eastern France, in a televised outburst that has become infamous.