07.02.2014 Libération criticizes the Rroma policy of Martine Aubry

Boy (2014) from Libération criticizes the promises made by Martine Aubry, mayor of Lille, concerning the accommodation and integration of Rroma into the city. Aubry is said to have claimed in a public statement to want to accommodate 30% of the Rroma living in France in the city of Lille. In a later announcement she is said to have corrected the number to 10% of the Rroma. The statements are especially contradictory because several large Rroma camps of Lille had been evicted during the summer of 2013: “The mayor of Lille tries to justify this huge discrepancy by explaining that she did not renounce her policy, but that Lille hosts a disproportionate part of the Roma population of France: 30% [of the population] she stated in November on France Inter. “I have never changed my declaration since 2008, I have always said the same thing: humanity, she said. Accommodate a part of the Roma, but not 30% of all those on the French territory. We are ready to accommodate 10%, that is to say 1,500. With humanity.” Boy rightly points out that the figures about the Rroma based in France – immigrated ones as well as those with a French passport – are very inaccurate. But to accuse Aubry of a repressive Rroma policy is inappropriate. Aubry called on several occasions for an inclusive policy towards the Rroma in France.