The French government has presented a plan to combat racism and anti-Semitism, including measures to curb discrimination from the educational stage and to increase penalties for hate crimes related to intolerance.
The French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, has presented a package of 80 measures from the Arab World Institute in Paris, where she has detailed that the plan foresees measures affecting different sectors such as labor, education, justice or sports, as reported by ‘Les Echos’.
One of the most outstanding measures agreed upon after months of consultation between the French Executive and anti-racist associations affects schoolchildren, since each student will have to participate in a «visit to a historical or commemorative site linked to racism, anti-Semitism or anti-Gypsyism».
As explained by the head of government herself, among French youth «certain conspiracy theories abound», which is why she stressed the importance of placating certain stereotypes from childhood by carrying out this type of visit.
The anti-racism plan, which has among its intentions «to better support victims», will systematize evidence of employment discrimination in companies and develop tools with digital platforms and ‘influencers’. It will also focus on access to housing to «highlight good practices and denounce bad ones», according to the newspaper.
In relation to Justice, the Government wants to improve the collection and processing of complaints to avoid dismissals without follow-up.
Borne has promised «total firmness in (the) penal response», allowing «the issuance of arrest warrants» against people who «divert freedom of expression for racist or anti-Semitic purposes». «There will be no impunity for hatred,» he has assured.
Penalties will also be increased in case of racist or anti-Semitic expressions «even non-public» for persons with public authority or responsible for a public service mission, the French Prime Minister added.
However, associations fighting against racism and discrimination have welcomed this new plan with caution, even with a lot of suspicion since it is not the first plan of this type presented by a government of Emmanuel Macron.
In March 2018, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe presented his, which the associations recognize as «a failure», Radio France Internationale (RFI) has reported.
In this regard, the Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Men, Isabelle Rome, has maintained that she does not want to repeat past mistakes, which is why she has announced that there will be a biannual monitoring of the plan.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)