A senior minister within France’s government has said that illegal migrants in the country must be forced to leave.
Bruno Le Maire, France’s Minister for Finance, has said that the country must force illegal migrants in the country to leave, and that the Macron administration cannot be “lax” in dealing with the issue.
It comes as the resurging migrant crisis becomes an ever-growing problem in Europe, with even some progressive officials on the continent coming around to the implementation of border-strengthening measures while others continue to push for mass migration.
According to a report by Le Figaro, Le Maire appears to be of the opinion that the country’s approach to immigration must change, pushing for the neoliberal government to be “firm” in tackling illegals.
“Firmness does not mean that we will do things contrary to European law or the Constitution,” he explained. “Firmness means: a foreigner in an irregular situation must leave, a foreigner must speak French if he wants to come to France.”
He went on to add that officials should be looking to deal with the massive influx of illegals without succumbing to “populism”, a possible reference to the surge in support for Marine Le Pen and the country’s right wing.
“Let’s not be accused of being lax or angelic,” Le Maire said. “Let’s be firm, without excessive words, without populism, without being contrary to our identity.”
Le Maire’s statement that France should embrace “firmness” when fighting illegal immigration comes as Europe contends with a surge in asylum claims only rivalled by the influx of illegals seen in 2015 and 2016.
This in turn has prompted significant fears regarding the return of Islamic terrorism on the continent, with the resurgence of fundamentalist factions in Africa and the Middle East only adding to concerns.
Just last week, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin urged for the country’s allies in the United States to double down on its commitment to work with French security authorities, adding that Islam remained the main source of terror for Europe despite modern obsessions with “white supremacism”.
“[A]t a time when the Americans perhaps have a more national view of disputes — white supremacism, repeated shootings, conspiracy — they must not forget what appears to us in Europe as the first threat: Sunni terrorism,” the senior minister insisted.
Such a penny has not dropped for other progressive officials on the continent however, with Irish officials in particular insisting that recent protests against mass migration in the country do not represent an organic backlash to their open borders policies, but the growing influence of a shadowy “far-right”.
“Young male asylum seekers now, overnight, because of certain people on the far right in particular, are suddenly people who are going to visit terrible violence on people and rape and so on,” Irish deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin alleged while talking to the media last week, accusing such a shadowy group of “exploitation” and other “horrible stuff”.
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