Debate fades on dual nationality

A REPORT on dual nationality by a UMP MP who wanted to ban it has been quietly shelved.

Claude Goasguen has announced that ideas in his report into the law and dual nationality had largely been rejected by the governing UMP party. His suggestions included forcing all French people to swear they want to be French, asking French children born to foreign parents to give up any dual citizenship status, and requiring those who apply for French nationality to renounce any others.

Dual nationality was brought into the spotlight by Front National leader Marine Le Pen who in June wrote to MPs asking them to support a law to end the practice, claiming it undermined national cohesion. At the same time a row broke out about training dualnationality football players in the French squad who then went on to play for different countries.

While the second row quickly spilled into racism, confusion and condemnation over quotas for black players, Le Pen’s letter provoked arguments within the govermnent. Voices on both left and right stress that France was one of the first countries in the world to recognise dual nationality in the early 20th century, making it both a world leader and national tradition. President Sarkozy, whose wife and father hold dual nationality, has not commented.