French conservative pundit and presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has stated he would support the United Kingdom turning back migrant boats in the English Channel.
French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who has promised to reduce immigration levels in France to zero, has stated that he would support the UK using the Royal Navy to confront and turn back migrant boats and said that he supported the UK’s new initiative to deploy the navy in the Channel.
During a trip to the northern French coastal city of Calais earlier this week, Zemmour commented on the idea of pushbacks telling the Telegraph, “When the survival of a people is at stake, it has to be defended. But I think that we should do more common actions. We have many common interests with the English.”
Earlier this month, the UK Border Force threatened to strike when the government announced it would be considering pushbacks of migrant boats, with a union representing the force calling the policy “morally reprehensible.”
Earlier this week, the British government warned that as many as 65,000 migrants could arrive illegally on the shores of the UK this year, a figure nearly double that of last year’s record number.
During his visit to Calais, Mr Zemmour and his entourage were disrupted by far-left extremist Antifa militants as he attempted to visit areas of the city occupied by illegal immigrants.
According to a report from Franceinfo, Zemmour was forced into a local bistro while dozens of far-left militants remained outside. The presidential candidate left through a back door into a car and was forced to cut his visit short and return to Paris.
Following the trip, Zemmour blamed French journalists for tipping off Antifa extremists to his visit saying, “The collusion between some journalists and the most violent far left is not only ideological. It is also concrete, assumed, aggressive, and very dangerous for democracy and its defenders.”
His campaign manager, Bertrand de la Chesnais went even further, claiming that the campaign had identified a specific journalist who tipped off the far-left extremists.
Antifa militants had previously confronted Zemmour in the suburbs of Paris last month during his first major campaign rally in Villepinte.
Police at the time claimed to have found various weapons in possession of the Antifa extremists, including Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid. At least 39 Antifa militants were arrested during the course of the event.
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