by EUDO CITIZENSHIP country expert Christophe Bertossi
On 12 October 2010, the French Parliament passed a new law on immigration, an article of which introduces a change in the citizenship law: naturalised citizens can have their French citizenship withdrawn within ten years (as long as this would not leave them stateless) if they were condemned for murdering a member of the police or the gendarmerie forces or for acts of violence leading to the death of such a person. Since 1998, the withdrawal of the French nationality has only been possible in case of a terrorism charge, treason, or attack on the interests of the French state.
This reform of the French citizenship law is a response to recent developments in the course of summer 2010. In July 2010 the gendarmerie headquarters in a small town in the centre of France were attacked by members of a “traveller community” and riots occurred in a deprived suburb of Grenoble. On 30 July 2010, in the aftermath of these two incidents which were widely covered by the national media, the President of the Republic Nicholas Sarkozy held a speech in Grenoble. His discourse centred on security, immigration, and the fight against delinquency. He called for a new restrictive immigration policy targeting Roma people and for a reform of the nationality legislation. The Minister of Interior also proposed that polygamy could constitute a ground for a possible loss of French nationality, but plans for such a provision were abandoned before submitting the amendment to the Parliament.
Read more: Les députés adoptent le projet de loi sur l’immigration (Le Monde, 12 October 2010)