"Do we have to be ashamed of what we have done? No," Hollande said at a press conference, in response to a question about France's policy towards the Roma, adding the law had always been respected.
His comments come after two rights groups said in a joint report that a record 19,380 Roma migrants had been evicted from their camps in 2013, more than double than the previous year.
"Forced evictions continued almost everywhere without credible alternative housing solutions or social support," they said.
The report said that government policy requiring social assessments before evictions "is rarely implemented".
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There are an estimated 20,000 Roma living in temporary, often illegal, camps on the edges of French towns.
The government has in recent years pursued a controversial policy of evicting some of them from the camps, often paying them to return to their countries of origin, mainly Romania and Bulgaria.
"This policy of rejection is ineffective, costly and unnecessary since nothing has changed after these evictions," said Pierre Tartakowsky, the president of LDH.
"Roma still live in France, in settlements they have rebuilt a little farther away, but their situation is increasingly insecure. The ongoing, increased evictions pave the way for the expression of extremism and anti-Roma racism."
The data showed that evictions peaked mid-year, but continued at a high rate in the last three months of the year despite cold weather.