French mayors protest Romani gathering

03 October 2000

About forty mayors from the region of northeastern France near the village of Chambley threatened to protest against an evangelical gathering of tens of thousands of Roma on the weekend of August 20-21, 2000, according to the Reuters news service. The Roma "are citizens like me but they do not respect the same laws," Mr Jean Libotte, mayor of Chambley reportedly stated. Complaining that in the past, authorities had failed to provide adequate facilities or policing, Libotte said that as protest, the mayors would refuse to make regional arrangements for the September 24 referendum on whether to cut the French presidential term to five years from seven. France's Movement Against Racism and For Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP) condemned the mayors' attitude as racist.

On June 27, 2000, the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), released a report on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and related intolerance in France, among other countries. While recognising that in recent years France has taken steps to combat racial discrimination, the report expressed concerns about the considerable part of France's Romani population which is not permanently sedentary; "Although a 1990 law imposes on municipalities with a population of over 5,000 that they provide a place where travellers can stop, implementation of this law is reported to be unsatisfactory, inter alia because many municipalities have not provided such spaces or because the spaces provided are not suitable. This results in Roma/Gypsies settling in areas from which they are often expelled. The denial of travellers' right to stop also has important repercussions on their employment and education opportunities. ECRI urges the French authorities to address these questions."

(ECRI, Reuters)