France tells nomad Gypsies to take a hike

French President Nicholas Sarkozy, whose comments in July had socialists in France accusing him of ‘pandering to the far right’ for admitting that the majority of French crime comes from immigrants, has begun turning his words into action. Today, the deportation of hundreds of Gypsies from illegal camps throughout France began to the wailing cries of French leftists.

According to The Daily Mail, the goal of the French government is the deportation of some 700 gypsies from France to the nearest thing gypsies have to a homeland in Bucharest, Romania. On Friday, 132 gypsies will fly to Timisoara and Bucharest in order to combat the gypsies camps which have been ‘sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime.’

The Mail further reports that to prevent upsetting the xenophiliacs in the EU, the French government will be compensating the gypsies with €300 ($385) in cash. The government has admitted, however, that under present rules in Europe they can do nothing to prevent the gypsies from returning to France and renewing their criminal activities.

Sarkozy came under fire two weeks ago for committing the French government to a ‘war’ against criminality, as reported in The Irish Times. He called for extended prison sentences for violent criminals and for the French government to tag repeat offenders and follow them after being released from prison.

In addition to the President’s promises, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux suggested that a Mr. Sarkozy might not be going far enough, and suggested withdrawing French citizenship from naturalized foreigners who committed certain violent crimes. Gypsies, being nomads, are not citizens of any country, and make little effort to become citizens, preferring to live a parasitic lifestyle. Their deportation marks a major stride, however, in control of crime.

The move shall put barely a dent in the entire gypsy population in France, however. There are over 15,000 gypsies presently living in France. The Romanian government has come to the defense of the gypsies, but Romanian citizens are not so critical of the French government’s deportations. Memphis Conservative Examiner was able to interview one Kiriakos-Ahilleas Paglas of Bucharest, Romania, who commented that he certainly felt the deportations were a good thing for the French, saying, ‘Gypsies are known for being a population that cannot assimilate… [to] modern civilized society and live a nomadic lifestyle, which in turn made and still makes them have a thievish (some would say criminal) character.’

He added, however, that it was bad news for Romanians. ‘maybe I sound like I'm having a grudge against them but think about it, if they didn't cause troubles in France do you honestly think the French would've made the effort to send them back?’ He expressed his concern as well with the poor image gypsies, who insist on being called ‘Roma’, cast of Romanians, for whom they are often mistaken as being. He said, ‘we true Romanians are being portrayed as beggars, rapists and thieves.’ In the interest of helping to break this false stereotype of the Romanians, MCE felt his words deserved a wider audience.

Memphis residents identify with the Romanians. A local college student living in Germantown commented that, ‘sometimes getting rid of the problem-causers is the only way to solve the problem.’ A Germantown man was surprised, however, as were many others, that the government was compensating the gypsies rather than simply shipping them out, and that so few would actually be affected by the move.