French president seeks constitutional changes for IS fight

President François Hollande has asked 925 members of France’s national assembly and senate to modify France’s constitution to enable the government to wage a more efficient war on Islamic State.

"France is at war," Hollande began his speech, delivered in a sumptuous amphitheatre reserved for joint sessions of congress in the Chateau de Versailles. "The acts committed on Friday night in Paris and near the Stade de France are acts of war."

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy earlier criticised Hollande for using the word "war", saying it was "not a word one uses lightly". Sarkozy, who will challenge a likely re-election bid by Hollande in 2017, has also called for "drastic modifications" in French security policy, implying that the socialist president has failed to keep the country safe.

Hollande called Syria "the biggest terrorist factory in the world" and noted that IS had this year staged attacks in Denmark, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Libya, as well as Paris.

The French president asked parliamentarians to extend the 12-day state of emergency declared on Friday night for three months.

He also asked it to revise the 1955 law on the state of emergency to provide a “more complete legal regime” for provisions regarding house arrest and searches without warrants.

Sarkozy asked earlier that persons figuring on the “S list” of radical Islamists be forced to wear electronic bracelets and be kept under house arrest.

Warrantless searches

More than 50 warrantless searches were carried out across France on Sunday night, only one of which, in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, was linked to the November 13th attacks. At least 23 people were arrested in what appeared to have been a case of “rounding up the usual suspects”.

Hollande wants Congress to revise the constitution drawn up by Gen Charles de Gaulle in 1958. He deemed article 16, which gives total power to the president during a state of emergency, and article 36, which increases the military’s power under a state of siege, to be “inappropriate”.

"This war of a different type requires a new constitutional regime," Hollande said, asking prime minister Manuel Valls to prepare the reforms quickly.

Hollande said it must be possible to cancel the French citizenship of dual nationals.

“We must be able to strip the French nationality of an individual condemned for attacking the fundamental interests of the nation, or an act of terrorism, even if he is French, as long as he has another nationality,” he said.

Hollande wants to prevent Islamic State from “using foreign combatants to carry out plots hatched in Syria and Iraq in their own countries”.

That appears to be what happened on November 13th, when IS leaders in Raqqa, some of whom hold European nationality, dispatched at least five French citizens to kill their compatriots.

Depriving dual nationals involved in jihadism of their French citizenship has been a key demand of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extreme right-wing National Front.

Le Pen has also asked for the closure of radical mosques and for more means for the army, police and customs.

Valls supports the expulsion of “radicalised imams”.

Extra security

In his speech in Versailles, Hollande promised 8,500 new jobs in the security forces and justice system, including 5,000 police and gendarmes, 2,500 posts for prison administrators and 1,000 jobs in customs. He also promised to stop cutbacks in the French army.

The French president said France “will intensify its operations in Syria”.

Hollande has also requested a meeting of the UN Security Council "as soon as possible, to adopt a resolution to fight terrorism".

He has also called for a "single coalition" in which France, Russia and the US would "unite our forces" in the fight against IS.

France has until now criticised Moscow for mostly targeting “moderate” groups who oppose President Bashar al-Assad.

Regarding the Syrian dictator, Hollande also changed tone, saying that although Assad “cannot be a solution, our enemy in Syria is [Islamic State]”.

Sarkozy had called on Hollande to co-operate more with Russia against IS.

The changes in domestic and foreign policy announced by Mr Hollande fulfilled most of the demands of his right-wing opponents.

“We will eradicate terrorism,” Hollande reiterated four times in his conclusion.

“Terrorism will not destroy the Republic, because the Republic will destroy terrorism.”