Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 12:00 AM

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BOB EDME / AP

Firefighters extinguish a car Wednesday in Cenon, near Bordeaux, southwestern France.

French citizens support crackdown on violence

By Tod Robberson
The Dallas Morning News

PARIS — After nearly two weeks of nightly riots across the country, France shows growing signs of an anti-immigrant backlash as horrified citizens demand a harsher crackdown on troublemakers.

Some French are warning that the country's current mood could damage relations with its Muslim community and bolster support for a right-wing extremist party.

Police said violence around the country, occurring mainly in North African immigrant communities that ring major urban centers, diminished considerably after a new curfew went into effect late Tuesday, enforced by more than 11,000 officers.

In a poll published by the newspaper Le Parisien, 73 percent of respondents backed the government's new get-tough measures to halt firebomb attacks by rioting gangs of youths. The French Riviera city of Nice joined a growing number of urban and suburban centers imposing emergency measures.

Even though central Paris has largely been spared from attack over the past two weeks, residents said they are still taking precautions.

"We wanted to decorate our store with big, gift-wrapped boxes for the Christmas season, but we don't dare. They might set fire to them," said Nathalie Normand, a clerk at an eastern Paris toy store.

Normand said she approved of government proposals to reduce the immigrant population and help cut the nation's double-digit unemployment rate.

"French fathers and mothers are going jobless while employers give jobs to the immigrants. We need a French-first policy when it comes to jobs," she said. "I think Europe in general has been far too liberal in opening its borders. They need to make a rule: If you don't have a work agreement with a specific company, you can't come in."

But Marie Sirra, a janitor who lives in a northwestern suburb afflicted by the violence, expressed horror at such sentiments. "My biggest fear is that all of this is going to give more power to the right wing," she said, referring to the National Front, a whites-only party that advocates expulsion of foreigners.

Members of the National Front staged a small demonstration in Paris on Wednesday, unveiling a new campaign with T-shirts declaring, "France: Love it or leave it."

The party shocked the French political establishment when its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won 17 percent of votes in the first round of presidential elections in 2002, only 3 percentage points behind incumbent President Jacques Chirac.

But the backlash was not limited to white French Christians. "I work for a living. When I see these immigrant kids outside smoking marijuana late at night, I can't help but wonder: Where are their parents, and why aren't these boys at home?" said a Turkish Kurd restaurant owner, who would identify himself only as Ali, in the Parisian suburban Aulnay-Sous-Bois. "We're living in fear because they think it's their right to roam the streets. In a democracy, it's not supposed to be like this."

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