A representative of France’s populist Front National party has said if their leader, Marine Le Pen, becomes president she would consider emulating the U.S. president’s restrictions on immigration from terror-linked states.
Front National mayor Steeve Briois, a leading member of Ms. Le Pen’s campaign team, was asked by reporters if his party would consider copying Mr. Trump’s newly implemented policy if given the chance.
“Why not,” he told AFP. “We are not living in the world of Care Bears anymore. We are in a horrible world. So from time to time, we must take authoritarian measures, even if they shock,” the mayor of the northern town of Henin-Beaumont said.
“It is true that the United States is also a target for jihadists, so if Trump wants to protect it by forbidding the arrival of these people from these countries, he is free to do that. Obviously, it is unfortunate for those who have nothing to do with that,” he added.
On Friday, Mr. Trump ordered a four-month pause on allowing immigrants into the U.S. from a list of countries linked to terror compiled by the Obama administration.
Anyone arriving from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, or Yemen faces a 90-day visa suspension. Some visa categories, such as diplomats, are not included in the suspension, as are people holding dual UK citizenship.
Ms. Le Pen has not addressed Mr. Trump’s latest policy directly herself, but she has offered guarded praise of the U.S. president before. In November, she said his election “shows that people are taking their future back,” before suggesting French voters could do the same.
In an interview with CNN, she claimed Mr. Trump’s victory boosted her chances of winning the presidency in France because it “makes the French realize that what the people want, they can get, if they mobilize themselves.”
“Donald Trump has made possible what was presented as completely impossible,” she added. “So it’s a sign of hope for those who cannot bear wild globalization. They cannot bear the political life led by the elites.”
Several polls have revealed the Front National leader is now favourite to win the first round of voting in France’s presidential elections this April.
Ms. Le Pen and her party are still likely to lose out in the second round voting in May, however, as those from both left and right will likely unite against the Front National.
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