One more controversy. Launched as if nothing had happened despite its extreme violence. Migrant aid associations will be “treated as enemies” because “they act once morest the survival of France”, declared Éric Zemmour on Friday at the border post of Menton, in the Alpes-Maritimes, where he was greeted by a hundred demonstrators.
“Less Zemmour, more love”, “long live the France of diversity and inclusion”, might we read on signs brandished by the demonstrators, among whom was the farmer Cédric Herrou, prosecuted – then finally released in March – for having escorted migrants from Italy and organized a reception camp in 2016 in the Roya valley, near the Franco-Italian border.
“They are accomplices of the smugglers,” says the former polemicist
“These people act once morest the survival of France. I consider them enemies. They will be treated as enemies. No more grants will be paid. I sanction them. Cédric Herrou should be in prison. They are accomplices of the smugglers, ”declared at the exit of the border post the candidate for the presidential election, who must hold a meeting in Cannes on Saturday.
“It is not misery that makes immigration. They come to France because it is the most extensive social benefits market in the world,” castigated the far-right candidate. “There will be no more tolerance towards these associations which rot the lives of the police”, he added, describing as “apocalyptic” the timid resumption of immigration in 2021, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior published Thursday.
Zemmour wants to restore the offense of illegal residence
“Here the police spend their time sending back migrants who keep coming back”, he further denounced, proposing to restore the offense of illegal residence, and to “reinstate collective charters for illegal immigrants”.
Asylum applications, expulsions, issuance of visas… All immigration sectors showed the first signs of recovery in 2021, following a year 2020 of record drop in migratory flows due in particular to the health crisis.