French President François Hollande says France will accept 30,000 refugees, not tolerate racism

French President François Hollande said in a statement on Wednesday that France has a duty to accept 30,000 refugees over the next two years. "Life must go on," he said, further insisting that racism against Muslims would not be tolerated in France.

One of the suspects in Friday's Paris terrorist attacks was believed to have entered Europe disguised as one of the thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing their war-torn country. In the U.S., Republicans have seized upon the suspicion to question the wisdom of President Obama's plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees next year — a third of France's commitment and a mere fraction of the 500,000 asylum seekers Germany has pledged to accept.

Hollande also stressed that France is "at war" with ISIS, and that the terrorist group is "threatening the whole world." "The concept of the terrorists is to plunge our country into division," Hollande said. In the coming days, Hollande will be traveling to Washington to meet with Barack Obama, and then to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said he seeks to create "a large coalition" to act "decisively" against ISIS.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up