FN calls for dual citizenship ban

THE LEADER of France's far-right Front National party has launched a campaign to ban dual citizenship, on the grounds that it "undermines" republican values.

Marine Le Pen has written to all of France's 577 MPs calling for their support ahead of a major conference on immigration and integration issues next month.

She says people are "pulled in different directions" by dual nationality and that this "weakens" their acceptance of French values and customs.

A ban on holding more than one nationality would force them to "choose their allegiance: France or another country".

Le Pen said the number of people in France with dual citizenship had grown rapidly - although her letter to MPs only quotes the number of Franco-Algerians, which she said was in the region of four million.

She has campaigned about dual nationality in the past, but in the context of football, where she claimed dual-nationality players were not showing respect to the French tricolore flag.

The Droite Populaire, a union of 35 right-wing MPs, accused Le Pen of jumping on the bandwagon. They lodged an amendment in parliament last September calling for an end to dual citizenship, which was thrown out.

UMP general secretary Jean-François Copé said his party would "certainly bring up the question" at a conference on immigration and integration that it is planning next month.

One of President Sarkozy's advisors, Henri Guaino, told Europe 1: "It's an idea that merits debate. Whatever the Front National's position, it's not wrong to discuss this issue."

Socialist MP Manuel Valls, who chairs a committee of MPs on nationality rights, said scrapping dual nationality would be "counter-productive" and that French expatriates with dual nationality acted as "ambassadors" for their country around the world.

Ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said the Front National had failed to realise that some countries do not allow people to give up citizenship.