France’s Emmanuel Macron is moving to redistribute migrants to rural areas, an idea which has divided opinion and right-wing politicians say is a punishment for people living in conservative-voting areas.
The CSA institute poll was released on Thursday and shows that a slim majority of 52 per cent of the French public are in favour of President Macron’s proposal, while 48 per cent say they are against the idea.
When broken down, the survey showed that only 11 per cent were completely in favour of populating rural areas with migrants, while 41 per cent said they mostly supported it. Those totally against were much higher at 25 per cent, while 23 per cent said they were mostly against, broadcaster CNews reports.
Those who actually live in rural France were the most unfavourable toward bringing in migrants to where they live, with 52 per cent against the redistribution policy. People who live in large cities were most in favour of redistributing migrants to the countryside.
In terms of political affiliation, 88 per cent of supporters of Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally (RN) are against redistribution, but the vast majority of the left-wing parties and supporters of President Macron all support it.
President Macron announced the redistribution proposal last week as part of a reform of France’s immigration and asylum policies, arguing that settling asylum seekers and other migrants in rural areas with declining populations would be a positive, arguing that “the conditions for their reception will be much better than if we put them in areas that are already densely populated, with a concentration of massive economic and social problems.”
Marine Le Pen later slammed Macron for the idea saying, “Emmanuel Macron wants to distribute foreigners in an irregular situation [illegal aliens] to rural areas. We believe that they should go back home. Unable to apply the law, he wants to change it. We will oppose this new madness!”
The acting president of Le Pen’s party, Jordan Bardella was even more explicit, accusing Macron of using migrants to punish the countryside. Per Le Figaro the MEP said: “I don’t want French villages to look like [No Go Zone] Seine-Saint-Denis”, and that Marcron “wants to punish rurality because distributing immigration in the countryside and in French villages is also to distribute the problems that result from it.