Senate rejects Sarkozy crackdown on first-time offenders

Members of the French Senate’s judiciary committee widely rejected on Wednesday three amendments that are considered key parts of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s drive for a more stringent national security policy.

The senators unanimously rejected minimum sentences for aggravated violence by first offenders. Amendment 390, which would allow juvenile offenders to be tried in adult courts, was also rejected by members of the committee.

The proposed amendments could still be approved in an ongoing debate in the French upper house, where the UMP counts 150 seats out of a total of 343.

But several senior figures within Nicolas Sarkozy’s own party have criticised the proposed measures, highlighting a growing rift between the president and parts of the UMP.

Gerard Larcher, the president of the Senate, cited the need to “remain reasonable” while former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin spoke of his party’s “drift to the right”.

The amendments were tabled for a debate on a new national security bill dubbed LOPPSI 2, which is meant to direct the activities of French police and gendarmes on a broad range of fronts, including road safety, cybercrime, intelligence gathering and illegal immigration.

Legislative smokescreen

The amendments are the legislative result of a much-publicised security speech delivered by the French president in the eastern city of Grenoble in July. On this occasion Sarkozy and his interior minister, Bruce Hortefeux, pledged to change the law to require mandatory minimum sentences.

They also evoked measures to facilitate the deportation of illegal immigrants, strip French nationality from criminals who were born outside France, and punish the parents of juvenile offenders.

His government has since come under heavy criticism at home and abroad for its campaign to deport large numbers of Roma and gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria.

Sarkozy’s security drive has also faced renewed accusations that it has been orchestrated to distract attention from the president’s political woes, including plummeting approval ratings, a scandal involving the heiress of the L’Oreal fortune and an embattled bid to overhaul the country’s pensions system.