Before entering politics, the 55-year-old enarque and normalien worked at the Ministry of the Interior and the European Commission, particularly on issues of illegal immigration.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 5 min
:quality(50)/2024/02/18/000-8617k-65d20f79c2e07489454839.jpg)
From border control to politics. In an interview given to Sunday newspaper (JDD), Fabrice Leggeri, who headed the European border surveillance agency (Frontex) between 2015 and 2022, announced that he would appear on the National Rally list led by Jordan Bardella for the European elections on June 9. From this Monday, February 19, he is making his first trip with the leader of the RN, to the Alpes-Maritimes, for a trip on the theme of immigration.
“My goal is to put my experience and expertise at the service of the French”declared the 55-year-old enarque to JDD, saying to himself “determined to combat migratory overwhelm” which he attributes to Europe. A figure in the impermeability of European borders, Fabrice Leggeri was regularly accused by NGOs of tolerating illegal pushbacks of migrants, and was forced to resign after a disciplinary investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf). Franceinfo returns in four questions on the trajectory of the senior civil servant and his rallying to the far right.
What is his background?
Originally from Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), Fabrice Leggeri studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Sciences Po Paris and the National School of Administration (ENA). After his studies, he joined the Ministry of the Interior in 1996, “as deputy head and then head of a unit responsible for cross-border traffic, borders and visas”according to the website of the European Ombudsman.
Still according to this source, he worked as a national expert seconded to the European Commission from 2000 to 2003. He participated in the drafting of a Commission publication entitled “Towards integrated management of the external borders of the Member States of the European Union “, which foreshadows the creation of Frontex.
He then held the post of sub-prefect in Seine-Maritime, went through the Ministry of Defense, the French embassy in South Korea, then returned to the Ministry of the Interior as deputy director of immigration, responsible for the fight against fraud, controls and expulsion. In January 2015, supported by Bernard Cazeneuve, then Minister of the Interior, he was appointed executive director of Frontex, a position he held until his resignation seven years later.
Under what circumstances did he leave Frontex?
At the time of his resignation in April 2022, Fabrice Leggeri was the subject of an investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) into his management of the agency. Three months later, damning extracts from an Olaf report were published. According to this non-public document dating from early 2022, Frontex was aware of illegal returns of migrants carried out by the Greek coast guard, and would even have co-financed pushbacks.
“Instead of preventing pushbacks [refoulements sans étude préalable de la demande d’asile des réfugiés], the former boss Fabrice Leggeri and his collaborators hid them. They lied to the European Parliament and covered up the fact that the agency supported certain pushbacks with European taxpayers’ money.”then summarized the German magazine Der Spiegel. Olaf reports that at least six Greek boats, co-financed by Frontex, were allegedly involved in more than a dozen pushbacks between April and December 2020, an allegation denied by the former director.
Fabrice Leggeri is also accused of “not having respected procedures, being disloyal to the European Union and poor personal management”according to Point, who also viewed the report.
Fabrice Leggeri evokes in the JDD a “very political reading” from Olaf, “which emphasizes the surveillance of fundamental rights to the detriment of the border protection mission”.
Why did he join the RN?
Nearby JDD, to whom he announced his entry into politics, Fabrice Leggeri was critical of the European Union’s immigration policy.We are determined to combat migratory overwhelm, which the European Commission and the Eurocrats do not consider as a problem, but rather as a project: I can testify to this”, he justified himself in the columns of the weekly. The new RN candidate affirms that Jordan Bardella’s party “has a concrete plan and the ability to carry it out”.
For the National Rally, this poaching is a first symbolic victory in the perspective of the European election campaign. “It’s very interesting to have someone who from the inside (…) can tell the French what is happening and can demonstrate what we have been saying for a long time, namely that for the European Union , immigration is not a problem, it is a project”welcomed Marine Le Pen on Sunday on LCI.
For the president of the RN group in the National Assembly, Fabrice Leggeri resigned after coming up against “an ideology of welcoming migrants”while he wanted to make Frontex “a European coastguard body”. Sunday evening, Jordan Bardella he said about that Fabrice Leggeri had been “pushed to resign, abandoned by Emmanuel Macron, because he was acting against the submersion of Europe”.
How does the political class react?
Various political figures have spoken out against this rally. Nathalie Loiseau, centrist MEP and former head of the presidential majority list in 2019, denounced on the decision of the RN, “champion of dubious recovery and garbage collection”. “Jordan Bardella has constantly made fun of Frontex, which he refused to support and which he described as ‘a travel agency for migrants’, when Fabrice Leggeri was its director”she explained.
On the left, the rebellious MP Raquel Garrido, interviewed by franceinfo, sees in this rallying “a shrinkage” of the National Rally “on toxic subjects”. She also denounced the record of Fabrice Leggeri : “Frontex has been described as necropolitical. It is the bet that by letting people die in the Mediterranean, it will have a deterrent effect for those considering the crossing (…) If I were Jordan Bardella, I would absolutely not be proud to highlight this character who has the death of thousands of people on his hands.”she added.
“His arrival on the National Rally list symbolizes the shift in European migration policies towards chaos and racism”estimated on X Chloé Ridel, spokesperson for the Socialist Party. “It already had the color and flavor of the RN”for his part tweeted environmentalist MEP Damien Carême.