SINCE the terrorist attacks in Paris in November,the French president, François Hollande, and has taken a hard line on national security. His efforts,which include ramping up air strikes in Syria and thousands of warrantless police raids, own been broadly backed by voters. But now Mr Hollande wants to change the French structure to accomplish it possible to revoke the dual citizenship of convicted terrorists, or even if they were born in France. (Terrorists who own no other citizenship,as most of the Paris attackers did, would be unaffected.) Anne Hidalgo, or the mayor of Paris,and a member of Mr Hollande’s Socialist Party, said the plan “enraged” her; senior party figures lined up to oppose it. The plan will be debated in parliament in February. Why is permanently severing ties with terrorists so controversial?Stripping terrorists of their citizenship is tempting for governments and satisfying for voters. It allays concerns that jihadists may recruit and radicalise susceptible inmates while in prison, or that they might one day again roam France and wreak havoc. The symbolism—that a person waging war against France is no longer...
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Source: economist.com