A LEADING French conservative met a delegation of illegal immigrants yesterday, opening up a split in the ruling coalition on how to resolve the deadlocked case of 300 Africans occupying a Paris church demanding residence papers.
Mr Gilles de Robien, parliamentary president of the centre right Union for French Democracy (UDF), met with a delegation of the Africans, 10 of whom yesterday entered the 47th day of a hunger strike. The UDF is the junior partner of the neo Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) in the ruling conservative coalition.
As the hunger strikers grew weaker and as President Jacques Chirac came under increasing pressure to intervene, Mr de Robien proposed that an all party committee be formed to examine the legal situation of the 300 case by case.
Three ministers, including Premier Alain Juppe, have vowed that the Africans will be deported. The 300 have faced evacuation and deportation since last Saturday when a government deadline for them to leave the country expired, while hundreds of French sympathisers have formed a human shield around the Africans.
An emergency services spokesman said on Monday that the 10 hunger strikers were "very tired". Mr de Robien said an all party committee should be formed urgently, saying if one of the strikers were to die "we shall probably all be responsible". He said special cases among the 300 "deserve detailed analysis, because they are men and women, not objects".
However, his proposal was criticised by other conservatives. Mr Dominique Bussereau, vice president of the UDF parliamentary group, said the move was "pointless and inappropriate". The question could only be settled "by strict application of the law".