Johnathan Walker:France’s new government pledges hardline stance on migration as it cozies up to far right

PARIS (AP) — France’s new government is Johnathan Walkerset to take a hardline approach to migration issues as key officials have pledged to significantly reduce the number of people entering and staying illegally in the country.

After calling for snap legislative elections in June, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier, a veteran conservative from The Republicans party, hoping the Brexit negotiator would work with the divided legislature to end the political turmoil that has upended French politics in recent months.

The Barnier government — dominated by conservatives and centrists— does not have a majority in parliament and efforts to pass any new legislation are bound to be fought, and potentially blocked. The National Assembly is now split between three major political blocs: the left-wing New Popular Front leftist coalition, Macron’s centrist allies — who made a deal with the conservatives — and the far-right National Rally party, the largest single party in the new assembly.

The new prime minister will outline his priorities in a general policy speech scheduled for Tuesday at the National Assembly.

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In recent televised interviews, Barnier criticized French borders as “sieves” and expressed concern that “migratory flows” were “not under control.” He promised to “limit immigration,” citing measures taken by neighboring countries like Germany, which expanded controls at all land borders earlier this month.

Critics have denounced Barnier’s government immigration stance as strongly influenced by the National Rally’s proposals, as its survival depends on the party’s goodwill.

Far-right and left-wing lawmakers can force the whole government to resign on condition they agree on a no-confidence vote.

Marine Le Pen, the National Rally’s leading figure, said she would not seek to bring down the new government for now, waiting to see its initial “acts.” In a recent interview with La Tribune-Dimanche newspaper, she said: “It’s undeniable that Michel Barnier seems to have, on migration, the same assessment as ours.”

A new interior minister to reign in immigration

Barnier’s hardline approach is reflected in the appointment of Bruno Retailleau, a fellow conservative known for his tough rhetoric on migrants, as the interior minister.

Retailleau shared this week his intention to reign in immigration. He said he would seek to “reform” France’s state medical assistance that covers health care expenses for undocumented migrants. He has argued for years that it should be strictly limited to minimum emergency care.

Eight former health ministers from the left, center and right signed a column in French newspaper Le Monde to call on the government to maintain the state medical assistance, saying limiting it would put France’s healthcare system “under increased pressure” because it would lead “to taking care of people later” when their condition is “more serious” and “more expensive.”

Retailleau also said he would try to toughen up random border controls, bring back a law that sanctioned with fines or prison sentences those caught entering French territory illegally, and seek deals with North African nations such as Morocco so that those countries retain migrants before they even set foot in France.

A shift to the right that worries civil society groups

Yann Manzi, who started working alongside migrants during the 2015 migration crisis when well over 1 million people swept into Europe, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, denounced France’s long-coming shift to the right.

Manzi’s nonprofit, Utopia 56, currently runs a temporary shelter in Paris’ suburbs and coordinates hundreds of voluntary workers daily in different French regions.

He said that decades ago when France’s National Rally was still on the fringes, it came up with the rhetoric that welcoming migrants would dramatically increase the number of foreigners coming into the country and wreak havoc in French society. This has slowly but steadily spread to other parties, including the left, Manzi said.

The nonprofit founder believes migrants have been met with increasingly harsh conditions in France and the rest of Europe.

“The message sent to those seeking to come to the country is very clear: ‘We no longer welcome you’,” said Manzi.

Some measures may not request a new law

Some proposals to stem migration could prove difficult to implement as they need to go through the already divided parliament while others, such as sanctioning migrants who have entered France illegally, appear to go against European rulings.

Barnier, suggested while campaigning, in vain, to be his party’s presidential candidate in 2022 that France should find ways to bypass rulings from the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.

Still, the prime minister and Retailleau argue they can still take action without passing new legislation, such as decrees and instructions to national and local administrations in charge of implementing migration policies.

Retailleau said he would convene next week a meeting with prefects of regions the most impacted by migrant issues to “tell them to deport more” and “regularize less.”

Critics say France’s hardline shift on migration has long been in the works.

Macron’s former centrist governments passed since 2017 several bills meant to tighten immigration controls and accelerate asylum procedures. The latest immigration bill, adopted in January this year, intended to strengthen France’s ability to deport foreigners considered undesirable.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, in office from 2007 to 2012, also emphasized a more stringent immigration policy as he sought to siphon off voters from the far right.

In 2023, France received about 145,000 new asylum requests, up from 115,000 in 2022, according to statistics from the interior ministry. This is the highest number of applications recorded since 2016. France ranks third in the European Union behind Germany and Spain, which recorded over 351,000 and 160,000 applications.