THE French Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, called a meeting of senior ministers yesterday in an attempt to head off a political crisis over 300 illegal African immigrants hold up in a Paris church.
Mr Juppe and the Interior Minister, Mr Jean Louis Debre, appeared to have backed down yesterday on the hard line they took last week when they said the immigrants must be deported. Mr Debre agreed to meet a spokesman for the immigrants Mr Boubakar Diop, from Senegal, and asked for a ruling from the Council Of State on the interpretation of draconian anti immigrant laws passed in 1993 by the conservative dominated parliament.
The 300 immigrants have occupied Saint Bernard church for the past 54 days demanding residence permits. Ten of them have been on hunger strike for 48 days. One of the hunger strikers was taken to hospital on Tuesday night,
Mr Juppe returned from holiday on Tuesday and immediately held talks on the situation with Mr Debre and Mr Gilles de Robien, parliamentary leader of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), the junior partner in the ruling right wing coalition, who is seeking to set up negotiations with the immigrants.
Mr Juppe is said to be in permanent contact with President Chirac, who is still on holiday.
The daily Le Monde reported that Mr Chirac had asked Mr Juppe to study the constitutionality of applying immigration legislation which does not give automatic residence rights to parents with French children.
The African immigrants, mostly from Mali, have occupied the Saint Bernard church for more than seven weeks. Ten have been on hunger strike for 48 days. On Tuesday night one of them was taken to hospital, where his condition was described as serious.
The immigrants' protest opened up a split in the ruling coalition on how to resolve the deadlock.
Mr de Robien met with a delegation of the immigrants and proposed that an emergency all party committee be formed to examine the legal situation of the 300 case by case.