On 21 October French President François Hollande became the target of criticism from both the left and the right over his recent offer to allow a Romani girl deported under controversial circumstances to return to France alone, without the rest of her family. According to polls published that same day, Hollande’s popularity has fallen to its lowest level since taking office.
Speaking briefly on television last Saturday, Hollande intervened in the affair, which has dominated the French political scene for the past few days. On 9 October French police officers escorted Leonarda Dibrani, age 15, off of a bus during a school field trip in front of her shocked schoolmates and teachers.
Leonarda was transported that same day to the town of Mitrovice in Kosovo with the rest of her family, whose asylum applications had been rejected. On 21 October, the family was assaulted on the street there.
"The Dibrani family were assaulted by unidentified people as they were walking through Mitrovice," Agence France-Presse cited a Kosovo Police source as saying. The mother of the family was struck in the face and ended up in the hospital, while her shocked children ended up at the police station.
Last Saturday Hollande said French Police had proceeded legally when deporting the family. He then proposed that Leonarda be allowed to return to France to finish her schooling – as long as she came on her own, without her parents or siblings.
Leonarda immediately rejected the offer. Hollande’s intervention, which attempted to combine strict posturing against illegal immigrants while taking into consideration those advocating for a more accommodating policy, has met with bitter rejection from the French public as well.
"What do 80 % of the French think of this?" centrist politician François Bayrou asked rhetorically during a television interview. "They believe the state has lost its sense of direction. The state makes a decision in one way and then, one minute later, it does the exact opposite."
The right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) has criticized Hollande for trying to appease members of his Socialist Party by offering Leonarda the opportunity to return to France. One of the leading UMP representatives, François Fillon, has declared that Hollande "took an unclear position against illegal immigration while simultaneously condemning a young girl to decide between her family and France."
Harlem Désir, the head of the Socialists, said Leonarda should return to France with her mother and siblings. "I will speak with the president and cabinet members about this," he said.
According to the French Communist Party, Hollande has made a "serious moral and political mistake". A survey published on Sunday by the Journal du Dimanche showed only 23 % of French people are satisfied with him.
That approval rating is the lowest since he took office last year and is even lower than the worst results ever for his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy. On the other hand, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has promoted proceeding harshly when deporting illegal immigrants, as well as the destruction of Romani campsites, is enjoying the most public support of any member of the Socialist government.
Polls show 61 % of the public is satisfied with Valls. "The law must be upheld – that family is not permitted to return to France," Valls said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche.
Valls has recently drawn attention for his sharp remarks about Romani people, such as his claim that only a few Romani people are capable of integrating into French society. His rhetoric has become even tougher at a time when the anti-immigrant Front National is gaining in popularity.
The Dibrani family arrived in France five years ago. In his request for asylum, the father of the family, Resat Dibrani, said they had been discriminated against in Kosovo.
It was later determined that Mr Dibrani was the only family member actually from Kosovo and that most of his children had all been born in Italy. The family’s youngest child was born in France.
Mr Dibrani has explained that he and his family left Italy for France because he believed they would have a greater chance at receiving asylum there. Most people in France, however, agree with the forced deportations of immigrants that have taken place under Interior Minister Valls.
According to opinion polls published on Saturday, 65 % of French people oppose overturning the Dibranis’ deportation. On the other hand, French students took to the streets of Paris in support of the deported girl on Friday, calling for Valls to resign.
