Compares expulsions to Vichy France’s deportation of Jews
The European Commission has threatened Nicolas Sarkozy’s French government with legal action over the crackdown and expulsion of its Roma population. EU Justice commissioner Viviane Reding accused the French government of duplicity, called the deportations a disgrace, and likened the French government’s policy to Vichy France’s deportation of Jews. “I have been appalled by a situation which gave the impression that people are being removed from a member state just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority. This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the second world war,” said Reding, as reported by the Guardian.