French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has resigned, citing a “major political disagreement” with the rest of the government. Taubira stepped down shortly ahead of a parliamentary vote on a controversial anti-terrorism bill stripping the citizenship of people convicted of terrorism.
Taubira disagrees with the bill which was conceived following the November 13 Paris attacks in which 130 people were murdered.
The president’s office released a statement saying Taubira “agreed on the need to put an end to her mandate as the debate on the constitutional amendment opens in Parliament today.” President Hollande appointed Jean-Jacques Urvoas, a senior lawmaker, to replace Taubira.
To date, Hollande’s Socialist government has imposed several of state-of-emergency measures permitting police to conduct raids without warrants and detentions without court orders, which have been criticized as eroding the French Republic’s civil liberties.
French law already allows the government to revoke the citizenship of convicted terrorists who were born abroad. But Hollande is under pressure from the right to include French-born terrorists as well. Many of the Islamist terrorists who carried out attacks in France and have joined ISIS had dual citizenship.
The law went before a parliamentary commission shortly after Taubira’s resignation on Wednesday. The French government insisted that no one would be made stateless as a result of the new law, meaning it could only be used against terrorists with dual citizenship.
