French Prime Minister François Bayrou has acknowledged that the country is on the precipice of being “submerged” by mass migration, as a senior advisor to his government has admitted that the country has “lost control of immigration”.
In an interview with French broadcaster LCI, recently installed Prime Minister Bayrou echoed the language of the populist right on the issue of mass migration, sparking outrage among leftists within parliament.
“The meeting of cultures is positive, but, as soon as you have the feeling of submersion, there is rejection. In France, we’re getting close,” the liberal PM admitted, adding that “foreign contributions are positive for a people provided that they do not exceed a proportion”.
The legacy media and leftist politicians quickly identified the language used by Bayrou as similar to that used by National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, who has long warned of a “migratory submersion” in France.
In response, the Socialist Party in the National Assembly, a key block in the contentious budget negotiations, said that it had cancelled a planned meeting with the prime minister to discuss the budget.
Paris Socialist MP Emmanuel Grégoire accused Bayrou of having his “hand outstretched” to the “far-right”, which he said will not “bode well in our future discussions” on the budget. The leader of the Socialists in the National Assembly, Boris Vallaud claimed that the prime minister was spreading the “prejudices” of the so-called far-right.
The comments from the PM came as a top advisor to the Interior Ministry — the government branch tasked with overseeing immigration in France — admitted that the country has “lost control” over immigration.
“Since the 2000s, we have gradually lost control of immigration in our country,” said special representative of the Minister of the Interior Patrick Stefanini on Tuesday.
Stefanini specifically pointed to family reunification, otherwise known as chain migration, as being the chief driver of mass migration into the country.
He said that because many family members and spouses who are given visas were not “selected for work”, it is more challenging to integrate them into the economy and culture as a whole, noting that the unemployment rate for immigrants is 15 per cent, double that of the native population.
In contrast to the outrage from the left over the liberal prime minister’s comments, National Rally vice president Sébastien Chenu said they demonstrated that anti-mass migration populists have “won the ideological battle” in France over the issue.
However, Marine Le Pen was less impressed, saying: “On immigration, the Prime Minister must be aware that what is expected of him is action. For the moment, we have a lot of observations and very little action.”
Since coming into office last month, Prime Minister Bayrou has mostly punted on the issue, opting to reopen the “interministerial immigration control committee” to devise solutions for him.
In contrast to the strong-arm tactics deployed successfully by U.S. President Trump in forcing Columbia to take back migrant criminals or face financial penalties such as tariffs, Bayrou limply admitted Monday that his government has been stymied by countries refusing to accept the return of their nationals as over nine in ten deportation orders currently go unfulfilled. Bayrou said that France should seek to “organise pressure” on such countries but did not provide any concrete suggestions on how to accomplish this.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on X: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: [email protected]
Read the full article here