France has again launched the controversial debate on National identity that will have members of public discussing whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear the Burqa.

The Public meetings began on Monday in around 450 government offices around the country and will be held regularly untill January end.

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has been trying to push country to “reclaim national symbols and values” which they allege are being compromised by immigration and globalism.

The opposing socialists have accused the government of residing to anti-immigrant sentiments to gather support from the right by saying they are loosing their national values. They said that by doing this the government is alienating France’s large immigrant communities.

Critics also fear the debate will provide a forum for inflammatory rhetoric against foreigners.

A writer and commentator for La Vie, a French magazine, Agnes Poirier said “The point (of the debates) is to do a lot with internal politics.

“There are regional elections in a few months and … Sarkozy is already looking to his re-election in about two-and-a-half years time.

“And he’s been extremely shrewd in the last few years, in actually campaigning and getting a lot of votes from the extreme right.

“The National Front in France is very weak at the moment, and (this is) partly thanks to his (Sarkozy’s)very tough campaign on insecurity but also a national debate about immigration.

“He (Sarkozy) set up the ministry of immigration, (which caused) an outcry in France because a lot of people, a lot of historians, said ‘we don’t need the ministry of immigration.’

“But that’s part of a general idea of trying to campaign on everyone’s ground, the left and the right”.

Since two decades controversy over Muslim dress and the immigrants has been raging in France. In 2004, a controversial law was passed which banned pupils of school wearing visible signs of their religion which raised a world wide protest.

The immigration ministry reported that the discussions are expected to create “actions to reinforce our national identity and reaffirm our values and the pride of being French”.

The debate will involve students, teachers, unions, business leaders, politicians, campaigners, will end with a conference on “what it means to be French today” and “what immigration contributes to our national identity”.

A final blow will be struck using an internet site that will allow users to have direct participation and will let them express their views directly.

According to CSA, a Paris-based pollster, for Le Parisien, a French newspaper, the plan is backed by 60% of the French. In the polls the French language was seen as the most important symbol of France’s identity, followed by the French flag.

But 72 per cent also said that the custom of “welcoming immigrants” was an important part of French identity.