French far right’s plan to ban dual nationals from ‘strategic posts’ sparks alarm
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00:00Dual national citizens could be prevented from occupying some key government jobs in France
00:05under a new controversial proposal by the far-right National Rally Party.
00:10The party president, Jordan Bardella, wants certain sensitive senior civil service jobs
00:16to be filled exclusively by French nationals and not by dual nationals,
00:21which means those holding two passports such as French and Chinese,
00:26or French and Syrian, would be denied the job.
00:30The sectors involved would include defence, security, intelligence and nuclear power.
00:35According to Marine Le Pen, the party's presidential candidate in the last election,
00:39only a few jobs will be impacted.
00:43It's really a handful of jobs, which means that when you have geopolitical problems
00:47with a certain number of countries, you implement a precautionary principle.
00:52Do we want to take the risk of a nuclear power manager being French-Russian?
00:56The proposal has caused widespread alarm for dual nationals who now feel like second-class citizens,
01:06such as this epidemiology expert.
01:11To be considered a 12-division, declassified citizen with segregations,
01:16I don't think you can work in an environment and a company of this nature.
01:21But it's a measure that could be rejected by the French Constitutional Council.
01:27It can be voted, but the risk is that the Constitutional Council,
01:30seized by the opposition, will then censor it on the grounds that it fails to recognise
01:34the principle of equality.
01:36Today, you have to be French to work in certain professions that are considered sovereign,
01:41and dual nationality is no bar to entry.