Christiane Taubira quits: the last left-winger in the French government has now gone

ItIt is the first major consequence of the decision by President François Hollande to revise the French Constitution in the wake of the terror attacks on Paris in November 2015. On the morning of Wednesday January 27th, justice minister Christiane Taubira resigned from the government because of her opposition to controversial plans to strip convicted terrorists with dual nationality of their French citizenship.

Taubira, an iconic figure on the French Left, was the last leading left-winger in the government, the last remaining figure who reassured left-wing activists and many of those on the Left who voted for François Hollande at the presidential election in 2012. Right at the end of her ministerial career Taubira gave an insight into why she had chosen to quit now – and also why she had also remained in the government for so long despite its drift towards liberal and security-focussed politics under François Hollande. “Sometimes resisting means staying on, sometimes resisting means going. Out of loyalty to oneself, to us. To give the final word to ethics and to rights,” she wrote on Twitter just after news of her resignation became public.

Later, as she took part in the traditional handover of office to her successor Jean-Jacques Urvoas, Christiane Taubira emphasised her differences with the Hollande administration. “I leave the government over a major political disagreement. I choose to be true to myself, to my commitments, my combat, to my relations with others. I am true to us,” she said at the Ministry of Justice. Taubira then outlined her views on the terrorist threat and how to tackle it. “The terrorist threat is serious and unpredictable. We are determined to get rid of it. We must give it no military, political, diplomatic or symbolic victories. Our Republican pact is strong enough to resist tragedies. It is much stronger,” she said in a clear allusion to the plans to remove French nationality, which some critics fear will hand terrorists a propaganda coup.

A rather more cautious statement was issued by the Elysée Palace as news of the resignation broke. It said: “On January 27th, 2016, Justice Minister Madame Christiane Taubira tendered her resignation to the President of the Republic, which he has accepted. They agreed on the need to bring her role to an end at a time when debate on constitutional revision begins in the National Assembly, today.

“The President of the Republic expresses his gratitude to Christiane Taubira for her work. She carried out the reform of the justice system with conviction, determination and talent and played a major role in the adoption of marriage for all [editor's note, the law that authorised single-sex marriages].” The statement added that the president had appointed socialist Member of Parliament Jean-Jacques Urvoas – a close ally of prime minister Manuel Valls - as Taubira's replacement at the Ministry of Justice. “Alongside the prime minister he will carry through the revision of the constitution and prepare the bill reinforcing the fight against organised crime and the reform of criminal law procedures.”

According to a presidential source who spoke to news agency AFP, it was agreed last Saturday, January 23rd, that Christane Taubira had to leave the government amid the ongoing row over stripping convicted terrorists with dual nationality of their French citizenship. “The president of the Republic, the prime minister and the justice minister came to a common and shared conclusion on Saturday, before the head of state left for India, that [the need for] coherence had to lead to her departure from the government,” the source said.

Another source said that her departure had been on the cards for some time. “She knew for several weeks that we wanted to go right to the end on this,” said the presidential source. “What matters is the consistency carried out in the anti-terrorist fight, and our issue is getting the constitutional reforms voted through. That's why the president and the minister agreed on Saturday on a departure.” The source added that there had never been any question of moving Taubira to a different job, such as culture minister. “It was either in or out,” the source said.

The government's official spokesman, Stéphane Le Foll, also emphasised the need for a “coherent” approach when he spoke to journalists after Wednesday's weekly ministerial cabinet meeting. “There's a need for coherence in the actions that are carried out,” he said. “This coherence is also what the president of the Republic calls collective ethics. Everyone has convictions and they are respected, but coherence and collective ethics must guide the actions carried out.” Nonetheless, Le Foll, who is also agriculture minister, underlined the fact several times that it was “Christiane Taubira's decision” to quit. “Christiane Taubira chose the moment,” he said.

Indeed, the timing of the justice minister's departure, two hours before the cabinet meeting and at the start of an official visit by the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, is very curious. It is even stranger when one considers that François Hollande has been preparing a government reshuffle for several weeks, at least to replace housing minister Sylvia Pinel, who was recently elected to the new Midi-Pyrénées/Languedoc-Roussillon regional council in southern France, and who wants to leave the government.

The foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who has been in his position since May 2012, is also widely expected to leave the government and is being tipped to become the next president of the highest constitutional authority in the land, the Conseil Constitutionnel. Meanwhile Jean-Yves Le Drian is expected to continue in the twin roles of defence minister and president of the regional council in Brittany for a temporary period, while other members of the government in post since 2012 are tired and want a new portfolio, among them health and social affairs minister Marisol Touraine.
As for Christiane Taubira, she had announced in a press release that she was making an official trip to the United States from this Wednesday, January 27th, until the 30th. On Wednesday evening she was due to be attending a dinner in Washington about the US elections, with “figures from the political world and think tanks”. However, no ministerial meetings had been scheduled.

The Elysée meanwhile insists that the timetable had been worked out in advance and that Taubira had not dished out one last slap in the face by catching the president unaware with her resignation. “It had to be cleared up before Manuel Valls' questioning,” said an Elysée source, referring to the prime minister's appearance before the National Assembly's legal affairs committee at 11.30am on Wednesday to discuss the constitutional changes. “We needed to make a specific replacement to show cohesion, rather than [replace Taubira] as part of a more general change,” said someone close to Hollande, explaining why Taubira had not left as part of a wider reshuffle.

'I salute Christiane Taubira's work'

Christiane Taubira, whose position has been weakened for some months, is thus replaced by Jean-Jacques Urvoas, the president of the Assembly's legal affairs committee and a close ally of Manuel Valls. Since the socialists came to power in 2012 he has coveted the position of minister of the interior, a post Hollande has always denied him. Formerly an associate professor in public law at the University of Western Brittany, Urvoas is a specialist in security issues and has a strong network of police contacts.

His appointment signals the end, perhaps temporarily, of strict parity between men and women in the government, which was a commitment made by François Hollande. It also means that all the so-called 'regalian' or core ministries – defence, foreign affairs, interior and justice – are now headed by men.

However, in terms of the policy carried out by the government the decision to appoint Urvoas is a coherent one. Christiane Taubira was against the constitutional reforms announced just a few days after the Paris attacks on November 13th, and radically opposed to adding to the Constitution the penalty of dual nationals losing their French citizenship if convicted of terrorism. Manuel Valls had let it be known that she would not defend the bill in Parliament and that he would do it in her place. In recent days the executive has turned to Jean-Jacques Urvoas, chosen as the person to steer the legislation through the Assembly, in a bid to find an acceptable compromise that would command the support of three-fifths of Parliamentarians needed for constitutional change.

Though Taubira and Urvoas have often worked together, notably during the debates on the same-sex marriage legislation, and have indicated their mutual respect for each other, they have also clashed politically on several occasions. In particular they locked horns over the recent intelligence and snooping legislation – overseen by Urvoas – during a lively debate in the Assembly about the role of prison staff in gathering intelligence.

Above all, and despite the many criticisms the government has faced over the last two years, especially over the question of public liberties, Taubira still projected the idea of a left-wing administration that was proud of its values, notably in the debates over same-sex marriage. Her personality and aura tended to eclipse her rather more mixed record at the Ministry of Justice.

Taubira had been tempted to resign before, notably in August 2014 when President Hollande's economic policies came under fire from critics on the Left, including his own ministers. She consulted people close to her and eventually explained that she wanted to remain in place so she could see through legislation that was being drawn up by her ministry, notably relating to the justice system for young offenders. That legislation, which has been postponed ever since the start of Hollande's term of office in 2012, could now fall by the wayside altogether. Taubira has also told those close to her that the vitriolic and sometimes racist and sexist attacks to which she has been subjected since 2012 also helped persuade her to stay in office. She said she did not want to be seen to be giving in to this outpouring of hate.
The reaction to Taubira's abrupt departure reflects the way that this high-profile minister has sharply divided political opinion since the start of the Hollande presidency. While many politicians on the Left applauded her political courage and in particular her role in the legislation to allow same-sex marriage, Taubira became the favourite target of the Right, who accused her of being soft on crime.

Three ministers on the Left who have all themselves quit the government queued up to praise Christiane Taubira's decision to resign. “A single word: bravo! Tribute to the immense talent, to the work and commitment of Christiane Taubira who has marked the history of the Justice Ministry,” Tweeted former culture minister Aurélie Filippetti, who quit in August 2014. Former education minister Benoît Hamon, who also quit in August 2014, wrote on Twitter: “All my affection for Christine Taubira, all my gratitude for her work at the [Justice Ministry] and all my respect for her convictions.”

 Cécile Duflot, the green MP who left the government when Manual Valls became prime minister in March 2014, declared: “I warmly salute the courageous decision and convictions of Christiane Taubira: faithfulness to our values is a strength.” Meanwhile Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical-left Parti de Gauche used the occasion to once again criticise the government of President Hollande. For him the decision to “remove” Taubira was yet another example of a demand by the far-right Front National and the Right being “taken up by” the current administration.

Appearing in Parliament in front of the legal affairs committee to talk about the constitutional reforms, Manuel Valls also praised his former justice minister, even if somewhat less fulsomely than others on the Left. “I, too, want to salute the work of Christaine Taubira,” said Valls, who was markedly more lavish in his praise of new justice minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas, of whom he said “everyone knows his intellectual rigour, and also his consistency and independence”.

Inevitably the tone was very different on the Right. “I rejoice at Christiane Taubira's resignation which should mark the end of the soft drift of our justice system since 2012,” Tweeted MP Éric Ciotti of the conservative right opposition party The Republicans (LR), a frequent critic of the justice minister. He then turned his fire on François Hollande, claiming: “The resignation of C. Taubira constitutes a new humiliation for the president's authority, who should have punished her for her stances earlier.”

Former prime minister François Fillon, said Taubira's resignation was “very good news for the country”. He continued: “There will be no new Taubira reforms, in particular on the justice system for minors, and we can hope for a little less softness and ideology from [the Justice Ministry].” Fillon, who served as premier under President Nicolas Sarkozy, added: “It's bad news for the Left because the seeds of division have been sown and no one can stop them any more. François Hollande wanted to set a trap for the opposition with the revision of the constitution, [but] he's snared himself.”

The president of the centrist UDI party, Jean-Christophe Lagarde said in a statement that the resignation of Christiane Taubira and the appointment of Jean-Jacques Urvoas were both “good news” for France. “Over and above the reprehensible criminal justice policy that Madame Taubira was conducting, her public opposition to the constitutional revision bill, of which she was [because of her position] in charge, humiliated the French government to the point where the prime minister was reduced to having to act as her replacement on the government benches for the debate that is beginning,” he said.

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• The French version of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter