The French Academy is ready to go to administrative justice to remove the mentions in English on the future model of the identity card, indicated its perpetual secretary Hélène Carrère d’Encausse on Wednesday at Figaro.
“For a long time, the Academy reacted with statements and press releases that were listened to. Today, all words are equal. Another form of intervention was necessary, ”declared the person who chairs the institution responsible for the language in France on a daily basis.
The Academy considers that by adding for example “Surname” next to “Name” or “Given names” next to “First names”, the model designed by the government contravenes the Constitution, which provides that “the language of the République is French ”.
“We are undermining an essential principle,” said Ms. Carrère d’Encausse. “Who decided to put French and English on an equal footing in this document? She asks herself.
Lawyers wrote to the Prime Minister
In addition, if a European regulation obliges to translate “Identity card” into at least one other official language of the European Union, this text does not provide for other imposed translations.
According to the daily, the Academy “therefore appointed a law firm” which wrote to Prime Minister Jean Castex “to ask him to repeal the provision creating the new national identity card”, without obtaining an answer. until there. These lawyers are preparing to seize the Council of State.
No spokesperson for the Académie Française was reachable on Wednesday evening.