Mass student protests in France against deportation of Roma schoolgirl

Antoine Lerougetel: Mass student protests in France against deportation of Roma schoolgirl ■ The mobilisation of thousands of high school pupils throughout France against the deportation of the 15-year-old Roma schoolgirl Leonarda Dibrani and her family to Kosovo has destabilised the government of Socialist Party (PS) President François Hollande. The brutality of the seizure of Leonarda—she was taken from a coach while on a school outing, against the protests of her teacher and in front of her schoolmates—has triggered broad popular disgust. While pursuing reactionary austerity policies, Hollande and his Interior Minister Manuel Valls have resorted even more openly to the racist policies of the National Front, scapegoating immigrants for the social crisis. Social anger over this policy has now exploded. The wave of outrage forced Hollande to address the public on television on Saturday. But rather than assuaging the anger of the students, he made things even worse. He defended the action of the authorities against Leonarda, not wanting to snub Valls. Then he made a “generous gesture” to the Roma girl, inviting her to come back to France—but only if she left her family behind.

Anthony Torres: French Interior Minister Manuel Valls proposes mass deportation of Roma ■ French Interior Minister Manuel Valls has once again turned on the Roma, demanding their expulsion to Eastern Europe. His comments, attacking the Roma ethnicity as a whole, illustrate the reactionary nature of the Socialist Party (PS), which is reacting to the unpopularity of its policies of austerity and war by fomenting racism and moving towards the positions of the neo-fascist National Front (FN). On September 24, Manuel Valls stated: “The Roma should go back to Romania or Bulgaria and stay there.” The following day, he confirmed his words asserting: “I have no correction to make, my words only shock those who are ignorant of the issue.” [10/01/13]

Vony Rambolamanana: Leonarda, une parmi tant d'autres ■ Rappelons tout d'abord que l'asile est strictement encadré juridiquement. La convention de Genève du 28 juillet 1951 permet à toute personne arrivant en France, même de façon irrégulière, d'obtenir un titre de séjour provisoire afin de demander l'asile. Leonarda a fait partie de ceux-là et la récente tragédie de Lampedusa illustre l'acuité de cette question. En 2012, 55 000 demandeurs d'asile sont arrivés en France, dont des familles avec enfants (dont 14 000 demandes concernaient des mineurs accompagnants), ou plus rarement des mineurs isolés. Toutefois, le droit se heurte à une très officieuse pression politique, à la fois l'œuvre d'associations de défenseur des demandeurs d'asile mais surtout du gouvernement en place qui rappelle fréquemment que la France n'est pas en mesure d'accueillir tout le monde.