PARIS – France’s crackdown on Gypsies, which has been criticized by the Vatican and the United Nations, is now exposing cracks in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government.

Two top Cabinet ministers have voiced concern about the government’s accelerated expulsions of Roma, also known as Gypsies, to their home countries. On Monday, the prime minister admitted to a "malaise" in Sarkozy’s conservative camp over the ensuing debate that has dented France’s image as a stalwart defender of human rights.

Undaunted, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said the stepped-up dismantling of Roma camps and expulsions, which he called "legitimate and necessary," would continue. "It’s not a question of stigmatizing this or that population," Hortefeux said at a news conference.

"We can’t close our eyes to the reality," he said, citing soaring crime by Roma and saying they were being treated as citizens of fellow European Union members Romania and Bulgaria — not as an ethnic group.

The firestorm within the government comes amid recent speculation that Sarkozy, whose poll numbers have been persistently low, may be looking to shake up the Cabinet in the coming weeks — with an eye to the 2012 presidential election.

One Cabinet member who may be on his way out is Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who said Monday he had considered resigning over the Roma expulsions. Kouchner suggested his frustration was not with the policy, which he says he favors, but with the way the message has been spun, and gotten out of the control of French officials.

The foreign minister, a longtime human rights advocate turned political figure, told RTL radio he "isn’t happy about what happened," but that he decided resigning wouldn’t fix the problems faced by Roma.

For years, Sarkozy has brandished an image of a tough, law-and-order politician in an effort to win political support. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of prostitution and child exploitation. On July 28, he pledged that illegal Gypsy camps would be "systematically evacuated."

The government stepped up a long-standing policy of rounding up Gypsies, dismantling their illegal camps in France, and sending them home to Eastern Europe — mainly Romania.

The policy has attracted widespread scorn, with some calling it a form of racism against one of the EU’s poorest minorities. Pope Benedict XVI and the U.N.’s human rights panel have expressed concern, 0and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding criticized the use of "openly discriminatory and partly inflammatory" language.

But in vowing to press on, the French government insists the policy is legal, is not new, and that other EU countries have similar policies. While Romanians, as EU citizens, have a right to enter France without a visa, they must prove they won’t become a burden on the state for stays longer than three months. Camping grounds must be authorized.

Hortefeux said that since July 28, 977 Roma had been sent home, mainly to Romania and on a voluntary basis with a small stipend. The minister denounced as "shameful" critics’ comparison of the policy to "Nazi barbarism."

Paris Police Chief Michel Gaudin told reporters that crime attributed to Romanians was soaring — one in five thefts. He said it was increasingly the work of minors, increasingly violent and "very structured."

European Affairs Minister Pierre Lellouche pointed to Romania’s need to take responsibility for its citizens, saying that only 0.4 percent of the euro20 billion in EU aid received for the 2007-2013 period has been used for its Roma population. Lellouche was traveling to Romania next week as part of a French effort to help develop an integration policy.

The government has admittedly bungled the handling of its message.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon acknowledged Monday on France-Inter radio a "malaise" within the governing UMP party and criticized "the way in which this policy has been presented by some."

"We sent home more than 11,000 Roma in 2009, and nearly 8,000 in 2008," Fillon said. "Saying that young Romanians are behind 15 percent of crime by minors today in Paris doesn’t stigmatize a community — it’s to point out that there’s a problem."

Fillon also said he was "surprised" about critical comments about the government’s security policies over the weekend by Defense Minister Herve Morin.

Morin hinted he would leave the government soon to focus on a possible presidential bid for his small center-right party, an ally of Sarkozy’s party. He also criticized the government’s crackdown on Roma.

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