Growing Support in France for Expulsion of Roma Squatters

World Bank President Robert Zoellick poses with Roma children during his visit to the Roma quarter of 'Fakulteta' in Sofia, Bulgaria 10 August 2010. Bulgaria and Romania's problems with the integration of the Roma have had repercussions in France. Photo b

Mayors from the opposition Socialist Party have supported the crackdown on illegal settlements of Bulgarian and Romanian Roma around France.

This has identified cracks in the ranks of the French Socialist Party, which declared the policies put forth by rightist President Nicolas Sarkozy to remove the illegal settlements and to extradite the Bulgarian and Romanian Roma living there, reported the French paper Le Figaro.

Some leftist mayors from the Socialist Party are said to have taken a “practical” stand favoring the planned Roma expulsion.

The Socialists have nonetheless continued to criticize French President Sarkozy for his attitude towards the Roma and their way of life.

The paper reports about a couple of cases in which local authorities in French municipalities attempted costly Roma housing programs, which failed, are have themselves demanded the expulsion of the squatters from Bulgaria and Romania.