French Minister Defends Bill on Losing Citizenship  Elaine
Ganley, WTOP-FM (Washington, D.C.), September 28, 2010  Does
France have second-class citizens? A new bill introduced Tuesday
in parliament aimed at toughening immigration rules would strip
naturalized citizens of their nationality if they threaten the
lives of police.  Opponents say the measure would drive a new
wedge between those born French and those who become French in a
country that sees itself as a haven for the world’s oppressed.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been languishing for months
in opinion polls, initiated the measure as a means to quash
crime, but some worry that the proposed law would create two
types of French in a risky bid to entice far-right sympathizers
to his conservative camp.   The bill “lays the first stones of a
European project,” he said, noting that the bill largely
satisfies the terms of an EU immigration pact that all 27
members must translate into law.   The sweeping bill includes
measures that target fellow Eur