News / France

French MPs back stripping nationality from terrorists

Wednesday, 10 February 2016 6:07 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 10 February 2016 8:45 AM ]

Lawmakers from French right-wing Republicans party are pictured during a debate at the French National Assembly in Paris on February 9, 2016.

French lawmakers have narrowly voted to amend the constitution to strip people convicted of terrorist offences of their French nationality.

Lawmakers on Tuesday passed the amendment by 162 to 148 votes, with 22 abstentions. The vote came after weeks of debate and is part of measures proposed by President Francois Hollande in the wake of the terror attacks in and around Paris on November 13, 2015.

The nationality measure has received strong public support but left the ruling Socialist Party divided. Christiane Taubira resigned as the country’s justice minister in opposition to the move, which also received condemnation from other Socialist figures.

This came as Hollande said last November that some 600 French nationals were fighting alongside terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

Socialist MPs from right-wing Republicans party and centrist Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) party voted in favor of the measure, while Socialist fringe parties and a number of ecologist MPs voted against it.

On Monday, the lawmakers voted to enshrine the process of declaring the state of emergency in the constitution and give further power to security forces. They will vote on Hollande’s whole measures on Wednesday.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls speaks at the French National Assembly in Paris on February 9, 2016. (AFP photo)

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned Socialist MPs that voting against the package of measures will “put the government in difficulty and leave the president in a minority.”

"Clearly, I await with confidence tomorrow's vote on constitutional reform," Valls said on Tuesday, referring to the Wednesday vote, adding that the country is still in danger of a terrorist threat "more serious than before November 13.”

In the wake of the Paris attacks, Hollande declared a state of emergency in the country. The parliament on Tuesday extended the state of emergency by another three months.

If Hollande’s package of measures is passed in the lower house of the parliament – the National Assembly – on Wednesday, it will be put to the vote in the upper house, the Senate, before it can be enshrined in the constitution.

Human rights groups, however, question the efficiency of the measures, arguing that they give excessive powers to the security services and gradually wear away citizens’ rights.

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