French Presidential Party UMP Forced to Cancel Debate on Islam

PARIS—The Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the political party of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was forced on Tuesday to cancel a public debate organized in its headquarters, amid concerns that the debate would spark new accusations of racism and discrimination.

Titled “Immigration, Islamism: Is France Threatened?,” the controversial debate did not come at a good time for UMP, which is now presenting a new bill on immigration in the Assemblee Nationale (National Assembly), the lower house of French bicameral Parliament.

“We have chosen this time to really participate in Parliament discussions on future immigration law, as they are starting this week and will be at full intensity on that day,” explained the Droite Libre (Free Right), the UMP-associated group that organized the meeting.

“These issues are a concern to our fellow citizens, yet they almost never have a chance to discuss them; those who dare to mention immigration and Islam are framed by the intellectual terror of ‘political correctness.’”

When French media made public the title of the debate planned Sept. 30, UMP quickly stepped back and asked Droite Libre to hold the meeting in another place. Officially, said UMP, ultra-conservative Droite Libre is not a group associated with the presidential Party. This would not seem so from the Droite Libre website, which proudly bears the UMP logo.

“In view of the importance of our event and fears expressed by the UMP management board facing biased press reports, our debate will be hosted by the National Assembly,” Droite Libre announced later.

Immigration Issue Facing Lawmakers

In the first draft of a law proposed to the National Assembly on Tuesday, Immigration Minister Eric Besson rigorously echoed the public stance taken by President Sarkozy in the city of Grenoble in July: following riots with the police, Sarkozy had said that he hoped people who recently acquired French citizenship could be deprived of it in the case of assaulting police officers or public servants.

A few days later, Sarkozy ordered the dismantling of 300 camps of Roma people and their expulsion back to Bulgaria and Romania.

If approved, the new law will indeed make it possible to deprive a French citizen of his or her citizenship if he or she has acquired citizenship less than 10 years ago and is recognized as guilty of killing a public servant.

The bill does not introduce the same possibility for those engaging in polygamy, as was hoped by Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux.

Finally, the text includes longer retention periods for illegal migrants (45 days versus 32 today).

According to the government, the new law would be a first step for a European-coordinated policy on immigration. Others in the opposition—and even in the presidential camp—publicly opposed the first draft, which they said is promoting far-right ideas.