Sébastien Chenu was the first to mention it, Jordan Bardella confirmed it on Monday during his press conference. The National Rally (RN) wants to “prevent” French people who also have another nationality from occupying “extremely sensitive jobs”, namely “the most strategic positions in the State”.
Status of dual nationals, modification of the Constitution… Here are the questions that arise after this much-discussed declaration by the leader of the RN.
What does the RN actually offer?
The RN indicated on Monday that it wanted to prohibit “binationals” from occupying “extremely sensitive” jobs, for example Franco-Russians from occupying strategic management positions in Defense. The measure would pass through “an organic law and a decree”, according to the far-right party, at the top of the voting intentions for the legislative elections. This concerns “very, very few people”, said the leader of the RN, Jordan Bardella.
In January, the party had already tabled a bill which provided for the possibility of prohibiting access to jobs in public administrations and companies to French people with a nationality of another state. “3.3 million French people could tomorrow be denied access to a job,” according to CFDT estimates.
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What does the law currently say?
“Today all French people are exclusively French. You can have one, two or three other nationalities, that does not concern French law,” underlines Gwénaële Calvès, professor of public law at Cergy-Pontoise. Currently, dual nationality does not prevent access to public service jobs.
For so-called sensitive jobs, “the rules of the civil service apply. You have to be French or European in certain cases. Certain positions, such as in the intelligence services (but only) are subject to authorization at different levels (secret/top secret, etc.) where your pedigree is verified,” a source within the authorities explains to AFP.
Have we seen this before?
We have to go back to the 1930s to find the implementation of restrictions for naturalized people. At that time, French people born abroad who acquired nationality later were prohibited for ten years following their naturalization from accessing medicine, the profession of lawyer or ministerial officer.
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“The goal was to prevent Jewish doctors or Jewish lawyers from practicing in France. It was an openly anti-Semitic measure at the time. And this continued under Vichy,” notes Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble-Alpes.
At the Liberation, these laws mostly disappeared. The right of access to voting and certain public service jobs for naturalized citizens will remain temporarily prohibited until the 1970s.
Could this principle be implemented?
There should be a revision of the Constitution, note the law professors: “Targeting people who hold another nationality is totally unconstitutional”, according to Gwénaële Calvès and Serge Slama. According to the latter, this measure which breaks with the principle of equality opens the possibility of “appeal before the European Court of Human Rights or the Council of State”.
Another pitfall noted by specialists: in many countries, you cannot renounce your nationality, but France “cannot tell other countries to change the way they change nationality,” insists Gwénaële Calvès. In many countries where there is very strong blood law, such as in the Maghreb, it is impossible to renounce one’s nationality.
In the United States, too, the simple fact of being born on American territory grants you nationality and there is no way to escape it, they note, they are called “accidental Americans”.
Furthermore, you can be binational without knowing it. “It is written nowhere that you are binational” and “there is no control body”, notes Serge Slama, for whom the RN’s proposal “is totally impractical”.
“If you cannot access public jobs, it means that you are less French than the others,” notes Gwénaële Calvès, who fears that if the question were asked by referendum, as mentioned for a time by the RN, that would “would tear France, the social fabric and trigger atrocious discussions about who is more French”.
