Op-Ed: Roma expulsions: The total lack of French political opposition

With national protests against the expulsion of Roma today one would think that the President’s law and order policies were unpopular, But they are not. On the contrary, polls consistently show public support for the crackdown. Why is that?

France is buzzing today, with the President’s enemies preparing for nationwide protest marches against the government’s hard-line law and order onslaught in general, and the expulsion of Roma in particular. This legislative fever has resulted in 6 months’ worth of laws, all of which were introduced with just one aim in mind. To crack down on crime and illegal immigration. The banning of the burqa, much tougher policing in areas where crime is high, stricter immigration laws, the summary expulsion of immigrants without the correct papers or a job, stripping some immigrants of French nationalities for certain crimes, stricter sentencing, you name it, he’s done it, and more. The “more” is the latest batch of measures which were sparked off by violent demonstrations by a small number of France’s Roma following the death of one of them, a crime suspect killed by police. The investigation into that incident is ongoing. In a nutshell, Roma are being deported in large numbers, their camps are being dismantled and the present situation has attracted the attention of the world’s media. All this highly controversial legislation should have course given the largest opposition party in France, the Socialists, a long-awaited opportunity to unite, bitterly divided as they have been over the last ten years by almost fatal internal battles and severely handicapped by a total lack of concrete alternative propositions to those of the last two presidents, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. The French Socialist party and its senior representatives should have been at the vanguard of today’s protests, but they are not. On the contrary, they are conspicuous by their minimal presence, and Socialist leader Martine Aubry is nowhere to be seen. They have left the field to a rag-taggle bunch of largely unknown Ecologists, trade union representatives and homeless associations, with a couple of human rights organizations thrown in. But the Socialists are absent for a reason, and that reason is precisely why the demonstrations today, although they promise to be noisy and well-covered by the press, will have almost no effect on the government’s policies. And why is that? Because the Socialists and other opposition parties know that they have, incredibly, absolutely no alternatives to Sarkozy’s policies and that they have never in their 100-year history lifted a finger to help the Roma in this country. In other words, they are part of the problem. They seem to have forgotten why Nicolas Sarkozy was elected. Sarkozy’s election platform was based on promises of action to reform education, pensions, and to tackle illegal immigration and crime. He was elected largely because of the total inability of his opponent – the hapless Ségolène Royal – to offer the French anything concrete. Her stated policy was “Anyone but Sarkozy.” No wonder she was soundly beaten. The French wanted action, not more Socialist criticism without proposition. They got it. That’s why one is forced to admit that the French have got what they asked for, what they elected him to do. He has been able to get almost all his policies through without too much opposition and despite even some of his own party members wondering if he’d gone too far. A poll published in yesterday’s Figaro shows that Sarkozy’s popularity ratings went up in August – the month during which the Roma question hit the news the hardest. Also – and more tellingly – the two ministers concerned with the Roma legislation, Immigration minister Eric Besson and Interior minister Brice Hortefeux, both saw their popularity go up too. But most important of all was the fact that the figures show that working class people and those on the political left gave them more positive ratings too. It has also become evident that Socialist mayors have been just as assiduous in ridding their towns of Roma via expulsions as have those who support the government. Even Communists have been caught in the act. And other nationwide polls all show support for the President’s actions against the Roma. A staggering average of around 75% of people agree with him. All this is disastrous news for the Socialists. On the very day they should be on a roll they are reeling from the news that people are beginning to trust the government and the President on a highly controversial issue. Yet they are mute. They are mute because, as usual, they know they have nothing to offer in exchange. They know that illegal immigration needs to be tackled and that they have never done so. They know that the Roma issue needs to be resolved too, but to my utter regret they have never had the courage to propose what I think is necessary – a concentrated program of organized facilities for Roma when they arrive in a town. The legislation exists (voted by the right incidentally not the left) to oblige towns to organize facilities but they ignore it, those on the left as much as those on the right. I consider that Nicolas Sarkozy has gone about this issue the wrong way. His heavy-handed and insensitive approach is not what is needed. But those who oppose him politically are the real culprits. They have not proved to be capable of fulfilling their role as an opposition party which proposes alternatives, be it for the burqa, organized crime, housing, the Roma, or anything else. Their continuing refusal to confront the realities of the modern world and its challenges are scandalous and almost criminally negligent. With gutless and hypocritical “friends” like the Socialist friends they have in France, the Roma do not even need enemies.