Expulsion of Roma ‘bad as Vichy France and Jews’

September is turning into a bad month for President Nicolas Sarkozy. Already he’s upset the United Nations, Fidel Castro and the powerful French trade unions, and now the French president has taken an earful from the EU Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding.

Using language not normally heard in diplomatic circles, Ms Reding tore into the French government for its recent crackdown on the country’s 15,000-strong Roma population which has seen hundreds of men, women and children deported to eastern Europe.

It was "a disgrace", stormed Reding, adding that the images she had seen on television gave her a sense of what it must have been like for Jews during the Vichy France regime of 70 years ago.

"This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War," said Reding. "I have made crystal-clear my doubts about the legality of the French measures. I am convinced that the Commission will have no choice but to initiate infringement measures against France."

The United Nations and Castro have already laid into Sarkozy’s hardline approach, the latter describing the French president at the weekend as "crazy" and of implementing a "racial holocaust", but Reding’s broadside brings with it the threat of legal action. 

France has broken some of the EU’s laws in its treatment of Romas, says Reding, and unless it shows a more human face towards the immigrants the Commission will take legal action to force Sarkozy to abide by the EU Free Movement of Persons Directive.

"Let me be clear, discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or race has no place in the European Union,” explained Reding. “I find it deeply disturbing that a member state calls so gravely into question . . . the common values and the law of the European Union."

Reding’s criticism has provoked a furious reaction in Paris with Pierre Lellouche, one of the two ministers accused of misleading her, scolding the Commissioner for her intemperate language in comparing France’s policy to that of Vichy France.

"A nest egg, an air ticket for the country of origin in the European Union is not the death trains, it's not the gas chambers,” said Lellouche, referring to the package given by the French government to the Romas it expels. “As a French minister, as a French citizen, as the son of somebody who fought in the Free French Forces, I cannot let Ms Reding say that the France of 2010, in dealing with the issue of the Roma, is the France of Vichy."

Meanwhile, Sarkozy’s government is also under attack from furious Muslims after the French parliament passed a bill on Tuesday prohibiting the wearing of the full-face veil in public.  The Senate passed the bill by 246 votes to one and it will now be reviewed by the Constitutional Council before, in all likelihood, being incorporated into French law next year.

The ban will make it an offence for any Muslim to wear the face-covering veil in public, with anyone caught flouting the law liable to face a fine of 150 euros.

The ratification of the bill has angered many in France, however, with the Socialist Party warning President Sarkozy that the ban could be challenged by the European Court of Human Rights.

With a salacious biography of his wife, Carla Bruni, published in France today, and with the trade unions planning a second day of general strikes next week, Sarkozy’s September doesn’t look like getting any better ·