Schools in France Stop Having Pork-Free Lunches; Party Head Says Catering to Jews, Muslims Illegal

France's far-right National Front party will prevent schools from offering Muslim and Jewish pupils pork-free lunches in the towns where it won in recent local elections, according to its leader Marine Le Pen, the Independent (British) website reports today (April 5, 2014).

She announced yesterday that arrangements catering to Muslim and Jewish pupils -- who cannot eat pork according to religious restrictions -- contradict the country's secular values.

"We will not accept any religious demands in school menus," Le Pen said. "There is no reason for religion to enter the public sphere, that's the law."

Muslims view France -- which is officially a secular republic despite being overwhelmingly Roman Catholic -- as imposing its values on them and other religious minorities. In 2011, a controversial law was passed banning full-face veils in public in France.