PARIS A whistle-blowing, drum-beating crowd of thousands demonstrated in Paris on Saturday against expulsions of Gypsies as well as other new security measures adopted by President Nicolas Sarkozys government.
Human rights and anti-racism groups, labor unions and leftist political parties were taking part. Organizers said demonstrations were taking place in 135 cities and towns across France, and others were planned outside French embassies in capitals such as London, Brussels and Bucharest.
They accuse Sarkozy of stigmatizing minorities and seeking political gain with the security crackdown. They also say he is violating French traditions of welcoming the oppressed, in a country that is one of the worlds leading providers of political asylum.
The protests mark the first show of public discontent since the conservative Sarkozy, a former hardline interior minister, announced new measures to fight crime in late July.
Sarkozy said Gypsy camps would be "systematically evacuated" � and his interior minister and other officials said last week that about 1,000 Roma have been given small stipends and flown home since then.
Sarkozy also said naturalized citizens who threaten the lives of police officers should lose their citizenship.
His tough rhetoric came after violence between police and youth in a suburban Grenoble housing project, and other clashes in a traveling community in the Loire Valley.
Polls have shown the French are split about the policy, though slightly more favor it than oppose it. Sarkozy has often built his electoral successes on his image as one of the toughest crime fighters in France.
For years, Sarkozy has used his image as a tough, law-and-order politician to win political support. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of prostitution and child exploitation.
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