The French government and its far-right opponents are in a bitter exchange over migration policy, just 10 months before the most important presidential election in France’s modern history, writes Politico.
Benjamin Haddad, France’s European Affairs Minister and a loyalist of centrist President Emmanuel Macron, told Politico that Jordan Bardella’s National Alliance (RN) party’s stance on migration is “a big fraud.” The far-right party, which insists it has done everything it can to reduce illegal migration and increase the number of people deported, is currently leading in the polls.
In a sign that the campaign could increasingly focus on the issue, Haddad said the RN had opposed all European Union efforts to control migration until it became politically expedient. Haddad, who has called for the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact and the Return Directive (which sets out the procedure for deporting migrants), said there was widespread fraud.
Haddad’s comments were seen as a political attack on the RN’s core value of fighting migration. In a wide-ranging interview with Politico, Bardella criticized the EU as responsible for uncontrolled immigration in all 27 countries of the bloc, and said he agreed with US Vice President JD Vance that France has been inundated with significant migration.
Meanwhile, Haddad believes Bardella’s position is hypocritical.
The minister said former RN leader Marine Le Pen had been outspoken against the return laws before voting in favour of them in the European Parliament.
The Pact on Migration and Asylum outlines how migrants are distributed across EU countries after they arrive in the bloc. Bardella’s party has also criticised the Return Regulation, which gives countries more discretion to deport migrants whose asylum claims have been rejected, but ultimately supported its adoption.
The most controversial aspect of the directive is its provision for return or deportation centres – places outside the EU where migrants who have been refused asylum but whose countries of origin are unwilling to take them back are sent. France is not among the countries planning to set up such centres, but Haddad said the issue is not a political, ideological or moral issue for Macron’s government, but rather a matter of efficiency. He indicated that he was somewhat skeptical, adding that France would prefer to screen asylum seekers at the EU’s external border.
While Bardella followed the example of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in saying that she would not join the bloc’s common position, Haddad stressed that France is achieving results today thanks to European cooperation. He said that Meloni also sees results thanks to mutual cooperation. “There is no nationalist solution to a problem that is this complex, that requires shared instruments, that requires cooperation … So we can see that their position from the beginning is incomprehensible,” Haddad said.
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