16—Cleveland Daily Banner—Sunday, January 3, 2016
www.clevelandbanner.com
France quarrels over
revoking citizenship
of convicted terrorists
PARIS (AP) — The push by
France’s Socialist government
to revoke the citizenship of convicted terrorists with dual
nationality after the Paris
attacks has turned into a harsh
political dispute, with the far
right applauding the move
while some on the left express
indignation at what they call a
divisive measure.
French President Francois
Hollande submitted the proposal three days after the Nov. 13
attacks in Paris that left 130
dead, in a shift toward a hard
line on security. The idea
appears to have strong support
in French public opinion.
Several polls over the past week
suggest that 80 to 90 percent of
the French are in favor of the
measure.
Under current French law,
citizenship revocation can only
be applied to people who have
been naturalized, not if they are
French-born, and the procedure
is rarely implemented.
The new rules would extend it
to all dual nationals, but cannot
be applied to people who are
only French citizens, as
France’s obligations under
international law prevent it
from leaving a person stateless.
Opponents of the measure
consider it would create two
cla sses of citizens — dual
nationals who could lose their
citizenship and others who cannot — in opposition to the principle of equality set out in
France’s constitution.
French authorities have not
said how many of those arrested
over the Paris attacks are dual
nationals.
Prominent Socialist Party figures, including former Prime
Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, have
publicly expressed their disapproval, but Hollande has stuck
to his guns.
“France must take the good
decisions beyond traditional
party divisions,” the president
said in his New Year’s Eve
speech.
While the left is divided,
Hollande is getting unusual
support from the right. The farright National Front has
claimed it is at the origin of the
idea. “Terrorists don’t deserve
French citizenship, because
French citizenship is an honor”,
vice president of the party
Florian Philippot told France
Info radio.
Members of the conservative
opposition, including former
President Nicolas Sarkozy, have
also largely supported the proposal — while also calling for
more security measures.
The government says the new
measure would apply to a very
small number of people.
The issue remains highly sensitive in France as some have
compared it to the revocation of
citizenship of Jews and members of the French Resistance
during World War II, when the
government led by Philippe
Petain
collaborated
with
German authorities. The Vichy
regime revoked the citizenship
of more than 15,000 naturalized
and 500 French-born people —
including General Charles de
Gaulle.
“It’s dangerous because you
start wanting to revoke the citizenship of some people, then
take a step further,” said
Socialist senator Samia Ghali.
French
Prime
Minister
Manuel Valls defended the
action this week. “This is a
strong symbolic act that punishes those who excluded themselves from the national community. Nothing less, nothing
more,” he said in a written
statement.
France first adopted the revocation of citizenship in 1848 for
those who refused to accept the
abolition of slavery, Valls
recalled.
The constitutional change, to
be debated in Parliament in
February, requires a three-fifths
majority vote from lawmakers.
About 50 human rights and
anti-racist organizations and
unions have launched a petition
to reject the measure.
Some human rights defenders
consider the proposal implicitly
targets France’s Muslim community, the largest in Western
Europe — including many
French-born with Moroccan,
Tunisian or Algerian origins
who have both citizenships.
The Paris attacks, which left
130 dead and hundreds wounded, were carried out in the name
of the Islamic State group largely by French and Belgian
extremists. Some of them were
of Moroccan descent.
The possibility of revoking
the citizenship of all dual
nationals — not only the naturalized ones — already exists in
Britain, Canada and the
Netherlands.
In the U.S., a person can have
his naturalization revoked for
being a member of the
Communist party, another
totalitarian party or a terrorist
organization within five years of
his or her naturalization. The
measure does not apply to natural-born U.S. citizens.
ROY
MILLAWAY
submitted
this photo
of “Lead
Mine Valley
on a late
fall day.