PARIS – Thousands of people marched in Paris and around France on Saturday to protest expulsions of Gypsies and other new security measures adopted by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
Protesters blew whistles and beat drums in the capital, the largest demonstration among those in at least 135 cities and towns across France and elsewhere in Europe. Human rights and anti-racism groups, labor unions and leftist political parties were taking part in the protests.
Sarkozy also said naturalized citizens who threaten the lives of police officers should lose their citizenship — and his leftist critics slammed that proposal as anti-constitutional and evocative of nationalist measures during France's collaborationist past in the Vichy regime during World War II.
Polls have shown the French are split about the policy of sending home the Gypsies to eastern Europe — mainly Romania — though slightly more favor it than oppose it.
France's recent and highly publicized crackdown has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the Vatican, among other institutions, and has exposed dissent within Sarkozy's own government. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he briefly considered resigning in the uproar over the policy.
Source: AP
Protesters blew whistles and beat drums in the capital, the largest demonstration among those in at least 135 cities and towns across France and elsewhere in Europe. Human rights and anti-racism groups, labor unions and leftist political parties were taking part in the protests.
- They accuse Sarkozy of stigmatizing minority groups like Gypsies and seeking political gain with a security crackdown. They also say he is violating French traditions of welcoming the oppressed, in a country that is one of the world's leading providers of political asylum.
- The protests mark the first show of public discontent since the conservative Sarkozy, a former hardline interior minister, announced new measures to fight crime in late July.
Sarkozy (photo) said Gypsy camps would be "systematically evacuated." His interior minister and other officials said last week that about 1,000 Roma have been given small stipends and flown home since then.- For years, Sarkozy has used his image as a tough, law-and-order politician to win political support. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, saying their camps are sources of prostitution and child exploitation. The latest moves by Sarkozy came after violence between police and youth in a suburban Grenoble housing project and other clashes in a traveling community in the Loire Valley.
Sarkozy also said naturalized citizens who threaten the lives of police officers should lose their citizenship — and his leftist critics slammed that proposal as anti-constitutional and evocative of nationalist measures during France's collaborationist past in the Vichy regime during World War II.- "Mr. Sarkozy is there to stand for the Constitution, not to trample it," said Jean-Pierre Dubois, president of France's Human Rights League. "So we consider this situation extremely dangerous, that's why we are here."
Paris police said some 12,000 people took part in the protest in the capital and that no violence took place. Organizers estimated that 50,000 people took part in the capital — half of the total nationwide.- Small groups of Gypsies took part, including women in flowered skirts, sandals or wearing looping earrings, and men in jeans and gold caps on teeth in the corners of their smiles. But they were far outnumbered by left-leaning political parties, labor unions, and dozens of activist groups like those supporting illegal immigrants or gays.
- "It warms the heart to see so many people out here. Fortunately, there are nice people in the world," said Delia Romanes, walking behind a banner of a 17-year-old Gypsy circus that she heads in northeastern Paris. She said the government has recently sought to strip its performers of their work papers.
Other Roma without proper residency rights were more fearful. "We are afraid. We aren't prepared for this," said David Anghel, a 24-year-old mason from Romania, who has lived in France for eight years. Holding the banner of a Gypsy-support association, he said his wife had been served with an order to leave their camp in Fleury-Merogis, south of Paris, about 10 days ago. They fear police will come to expel them in the next few days.- Similar peaceful protests took place outside French embassies elsewhere in Europe. In Belgrade, Serbia, dozens of Gypsies chanted anti-racist slogans and held banners calling for an end to the expulsions from France.
- In Rome, Marcello Zuinisi, a Tuscany-based Gypsy leader, sought to remind the French about their "liberte, egalite, fraternite" motto: "We want those values to be respected today."
- In an open letter to Sarkozy published Saturday in Le Monde daily, celebrated French-Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun — whom Sarkozy inducted into France's Legion d'Honneur in 2007 — said he felt the proposal about stripping citizenship had "threatened a little bit — or at least weakened — my French nationality."
Polls have shown the French are split about the policy of sending home the Gypsies to eastern Europe — mainly Romania — though slightly more favor it than oppose it.France's recent and highly publicized crackdown has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the Vatican, among other institutions, and has exposed dissent within Sarkozy's own government. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he briefly considered resigning in the uproar over the policy.
Monday, 22 November, 2010
Message for Europe
We aren-t crows
We don-t live in tents
We make efforts to elevate ourselves
and we don-t sing in Vienna at an accordion
We don-t beg with our handicape exposed
to make a fortune
and we don-t guess your future
in mizerable cottages
we don-t wear flowered dresses
and don-t pick pockets
we don-t go to Sweden with 7 kids
to get social support
You blame us from Berlin to Pamplona
i almost puke eat my dick
you won-t find one romanian it the caravans at Rome
We freeze in classrooms since we-re 6 ot 7
6-7 hours a day
without heat, food or money
we have poor parents at home
and one thing-s for sure:
we cultivate our hope to be successful on our own
We contront with new laws given by assholes
they dance with us the fucked up Waltz
that is one step forward , two steps back
I piss on gays and it ain-t normal
for my kids to see homosexuals that kiss themselves
explicitly on the streets
It-s trendy to be tolerant but we won-t revive Sodoma
we can-t send our fuckers packaged to Barcelona
we are the poorer relative so we can-t be brothers
Message for Europe:
I THUNK YOU-RE MUDDLING US
We don-t have 7 brothers at home
Mom really isn-t sick
dad quickly drank his caffee and went to work in a hurry
We study at universities
and spend our last dime on books
we won-t ever be garbagemen at Amsterdam
We speak 3 languages and we can fly your planes
but we can-t, for fuck sake socialize with garbage cans
We force locked doors we live with forbidden dreams
and work legaly a full year for a hand of coins
Keep this in minde, quickly, belive us! we din-t eat swans
we respect ourselves and we solve our problems on our own
Whores and bitches in Madrid fill your gangs
We romanians wait in a queue to fill the theatres
We vote in puke , that-s true and the country is down
cuz-it-s cheaper to pay cash when you-re buying a ruin
The funds from EU dissappear in mansions
in inexistant streets and useless technologies
If we gave relations, you sausages pardon .. i mean broathers
we can ask for spicy details in "The forest of the Hanged"
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