Government Proposal: Front Party and Dozen Migrants

government proposal: The mayor led several hundred people protesting a government proposal to house a few dozen migrants in an abandoned wing of a psychiatric hospital while they apply for asylum or study other options, according to Metro News. Left-wing activists answered with their own, smaller rally to welcome the migrants — but then were drowned out by yet another gathering organized by the anti-immigrant, far-right National Front party. Competing rallies were held Saturday in Pierrefeu in Provence in southeast France, under watch of gendarmes. The National Front is making the Calais relocation plan a nationwide cause, urging mayors to resist and organizing protests across the country. President Francois Hollande has pledged to close the Calais camp before winter and relocate as many as 9,000 migrants living there to 164 sites around France while their cases are examined. Resistance to immigration is central to the campaign platform of National Front leader Marine Le Pen in her bid for the French presidency next year. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.