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French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira has resigned over proposals to strip convicted French-born terrorists of their citizenship if they have another nationality.
Current laws already allow for naturalized citizens to be stripped of their nationality.
The new plans come as part of a series of reforms after 130 people were killed in terror attacks in Paris last November.
The measure was described as a “strong, symbolic act against those who have excluded themselves from the national community” by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
Other reforms set to be debated next month include the right to declare a state of emergency, powers to raid homes and to place people under house arrest without judicial oversight.
Though right-wing politicians have praised the reforms, many in the ruling Socialist party see the “loss of nationality” clause as discriminatory towards one part of the part of the population.
Some fear it may drive a wedge between French citizens and those who hold other nationalities.
Parliamentary sources have said that the phrase “dual citizen” would not feature in the reforms to avoid discrimination.
But it was unclear if this would also compel the government to strip those who only hold French nationality of their citizenship, creating stateless citizens.
Under normal circumstances, such a move would be illegal under international law.
Ms Taubira, an outspoken but popular figure in the party, resigned over the measure on Wednesday.
She tweeted: “Sometimes to resist means staying, sometimes resisting means leaving.”
She had previously announced that the measure would be dropped before being overruled by Holland, who called for it to be enshrined in the constitution.
The 63-year-old is not new to controversy, having forged the country’s same-sex marriage bill in 2013 which saw large-scale protests in France.
She later tweeted that she was “proud” of her time serving as Justice Minister, despite having admitted it was “very hard” at times, having suffered from racial abuse by some far-right politicians.
