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The tension between a liberal and a more militant understanding of secularism is at the core of the construction of secularism in France. The law of 1905 represented a liberal legacy from the Third Republic. It represents neither the beginning nor the end of the history of secularism. The Fifth Republic inherited this complex legacy. The major crises it has experienced have shown the central role played by education in France: the school seems to be a space that should be protected from any religious presence, even if this challenges the freedom of religious expression recognized in the rest of the public sphere. In addition, the liberal conception of secularism is being questioned today, although without any legal consequences, by certain speeches of President Nicolas Sarkozy who has invited the State to abandon its ‘lack of interest’ for religious beliefs, although such a lack of interest is inherent to the very liberal ‘neutrality’ required by the law of 1905.