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French justice minister Christiane Taubira resigns French minister Christiane Taubira resigns after fallout over terror policy
(35 minutes later)
France’s justice minister, Christiane Taubira, has resigned, the office of the president, François Hollande, said in a statement. François Hollande’s fraught battle to enshrine tough, emergency security measures into the French constitution has taken another twist after the French justice minister, Christiane Taubira, resigned.
The news came as parliament prepared to debate a controversial constitutional reform that allows people convicted of terrorism to be stripped of their French citizenship in certain circumstances. Taubira, a well-established political figure from Cayenne in French Guiana, was seen as an outspoken voice on the left of the Socialist government who had championed a rights-based and increasingly open approach to the justice system. She was best known for her role in introducing France’s same-sex marriage law in 2013.
Taubira had expressed reservations about the plan, and was often at odds with her government on policy. But since the January and November terrorist attacks in Paris, Taubira had been seen as increasingly at odds with Hollande’s hardline security clampdown that had sought to confer more emergency powers on police and local officials and away from the legal process. Her resignation smoothes the way for Hollande’s high-stakes bid to enshrine special emergency measures into the French constitution.
The statement said her resignation had been accepted and that Jean-Jacques Urvoas, widely known as a strong advocate of the government line on such reforms, would replace her. Related: French MPs vote to extend state of emergency after Paris attacks
More details soon ... Taubira’s ultimate showdown with Hollande and his prime minister Manuel Valls was over the president’s controversial plans to strip convicted French-born terrorists of their citizenship if they have a second dual nationality. The measure – known as the “loss of nationality” plan – was to be written into the constitution next month. The move, which the government had admitted was purely symbolic, was seen by critics on the left, such as Taubira, as having the dangerous side-effect of sending a message that French citizens could be divided into two categories – with those who were “pure” French worth more than those with mixed backgrounds.
Taubira had repeatedly criticised the measure in public as pointless, and of “absolutely pathetic inefficiency”, warning that it attacked an “important pillar” of French citizenship and identity.
She had insisted she would stay in government despite opposing the measure, but tension was rising because she would be expected to defend the bill in parliament, despite being publicly fervently opposed to it.
This morning, just as parliament prepared to open its first debate on the constitutional changes, Taubira met Hollande and Valls at the Elysée palace for a meeting that was described as “warm”. Hollande’s presidential office swiftly issued a statement saying Taubira had resigned.
Taubira instantly tweeted: “Sometimes to resist means staying, sometimes to resist means leaving.”
Her departure clears the way for the government to drive through changes to the French constitution that include the special security measures that make up the state of emergency. France has been living under a state of emergency since the November attacks and is now seeking to extend it until June. The state of emergency gives police and local officials special powers to raid homes and place people under house arrest without judicial oversight.
But for Hollande, Taubira’s departure also marks the loss of a key figure on the left of his government at a time when he is trying to rally a fragmented Socialist party behind him for a bid for reelection in the presidential race next year.
Taubira, who was criticised by the right for the same-sex marriage law and accused by them of not being hardline enough on justice, had often faced racist taunts from far-right sympathisers. At one rally, children had waved bananas at her. A municipal election candidate for the far-right Front National was forced to withdraw in 2013 after likening her to a monkey on Facebook. She later told Libération that racist attacks “were an attack on the heart of the Republic.”
Taubira has been replaced by the Brittany MP Jean-Jacques Urvoas who, as president of the parliamentary laws commission, has been helping Hollande to craft the constitutional changes.
The government’s plans to extend the current three-month state of emergency – which expires on 26 February – have been criticised by rights activists. On Wednesday afternoon, France’s highest court is expected to rule on a request by the French Human Rights League to end the state of emergency which it said was no longer justified and “seriously impacts on public freedoms”.