L’ISLE-SUR-LA-SORGUE, France—Wedged between river tributaries in southeastern France, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is known for its cobblestone streets and its sun-dappled outdoor market.
But ahead of local elections this month, the debate in this small town, and in others across France, has centered on the fallout from the beheading of a schoolteacher near Paris last fall by a Chechen refugee as well as the slaying of churchgoers in Nice weeks later by a Tunisian migrant.
Across France questions over the place of Islam in French society and tensions over immigration have come to preoccupy many and have pushed the electorate rightward.
In response, the centrist government of President
Emmanuel Macron
has leaned toward more conservative policies, cracking down on mosques and other Islamic organizations that it says practice Islamist separatism, Mr. Macron’s term for what the government says is a movement that seeks to override civil laws…