Sunday

28th May 2023

France to fight racism and anti-Semitism in 2015

  • Both Merkel and Hollande spoke out against racism in their New Year speeches (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

French leader Francois Hollande has joined German chancellor Angela Merkel in a warning against racism in his New Year speech.

In a televised address on Wednesday (31 December) focused largely on the economy, Hollande spoke of defending French values in the face of new social devisions.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

He spoke out against stigmatising any single religion and defended the ideals of secularism and the dignity of women.

"It's when France forgets its principles that it loses itself," he said.

“I am making the fight against racism and anti-Semitism a national priority".

He added that France cannot forget its history, in reference to the deportation of Jews to German extermination camps during the second world war.

France has some of the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in Europe. Both communities are subjected to slurs and violence.

But last year’s Israeli military operation against Gaza provoked a backlash against the Jewish community in France.

The operation, which killed over 2,000 people, sparked street protests and is said to have contributed to a rise in attacks against Jewish targets after a fall in 2013.

France had recorded a 31 percent decline from 2012 (614) to 2013 (423) in the number of anti-Semitic actions and threats, according to France’s National Consultative Commission on Human Rights.

It notes that while Jews represent less than 1 percent of the French population, 40 percent of racist violence perpetrated in France in 2013 targeted Jews.

The most affected regions include Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, and Rhone-Alpes.

The commission also says racist attacks against other minorities like the Roma, blacks, and France's large Muslim communities have increased over the years.

Recent targets include government officials such as the black justice minister Christiane Taubira and Muslim education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.

Meanwhile, Merkel made similar comments in her New Year’s address.

The chancellor had spoken out against the so-called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida).

In mid-December, some 17,000 Pegida supporters demonstrated in the eastern city of Dresden.

“Today many people are again shouting on Mondays: 'We are the people’. But what they really mean is: you are not one of us, because of your skin color or your religion,” said Merkel.

EU politicians deplore France shooting

EU politicians have deplored shootings at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo calling them "brutal" and "inhumane" and a direct attack on the freedom of press in Europe.

MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024

"This will be the first time a member state that is under the Article 7 procedure will take over the rotating presidency of the council," French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the key lawmaker on Hungary, warned.

European Parliament scales back luxury MEP pension fund

The European Parliament's Bureau, a political body composed of the president and its vice-presidents, decided to slash payouts from the fund by 50 percent, freeze automatic indexations, and increase the pension age from 65 to 67.

WhoisWho? Calls mount to bring back EU directory

NGOs and lobbyists slammed the EU commission for removing contact details of non-managerial staff from its public register, arguing that the institution is now less transparent.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

Latest News

  1. How the EU's money for waste went to waste in Lebanon
  2. EU criminal complicity in Libya needs recognition, says expert
  3. Europe's missing mails
  4. MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024
  5. PFAS 'forever chemicals' cost society €16 trillion a year
  6. EU will 'react as appropriate' to Russian nukes in Belarus
  7. The EU needs to foster tech — not just regulate it
  8. EU: national energy price-spike measures should end this year

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us