Despite calls for “dignity”, the far right and the French right seized on the Annecy attack perpetrated on Thursday by a Syrian refugee to denounce the “wildness” of the country and “massive immigration” .
The immense shock in France created by this knife attack against very small children in a playground did not prevent political recovery and the minute of silence observed Thursday by the deputies immediately after the tragedy fizzled.
While two of the four injured children are still in “vital emergency” on Friday – a total of six people were injured – and French President Emmanuel Macron went there, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne called on everyone to “show of dignity in these circumstances”.
Executive spokesman Olivier Véran for his part warned against an “unhealthy game of explanations and justifications” and the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire called for “leaving politics aside for a moment” .
It’s a waste of time, as immigration is such an inflammable subject in France.
The extreme right, in constant progression for years, until reaching the gates of power, seized the opportunity.
“Is there a high authority to ask permission to talk about the problems? “, mocked Friday morning the leader of the far right Marine Le Pen, twice finalist of the presidential elections 2017 and 2022.
“I feel obliged to provide answers, and I believe that the French expect us to provide answers,” she said on Europe 1.
“Mass immigration”
As soon as the news of the attack became known on Thursday, several right and far-right leaders denounced “massive immigration”, spoke for some of “radical Islamism” and “terrorism” before it was known that the attacker is Christian, that he acted “without apparent terrorist motive”, according to the prosecution.
“It is our whole migration policy and a certain number of European rules that must be called into question,” said the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella on Twitter. “Mass immigration has a direct link with the savagery from which our country suffers”, abounded the vice-president of the party David Rachline.
The historical right, which is currently trying to impose its proposals in the new project on immigration wanted by the presidential majority, has also rebounded on the tragedy.
“Mass uncontrolled immigration kills,” commented the boss of the deputies Les Républicains (LR) Olivier Marleix.
After the investigation, “we will have to draw all the consequences without naivety, with force and lucidity”, affirmed Thursday the president of the party Les Républicains Éric Ciotti.
On Friday, he castigated “a catastrophic management of asylum in Europe” and called for no longer “subjecting to the rules imposed on us”. Statements made the day after the European agreement providing for compulsory solidarity between Member States for asylum seekers.
As is happening in many EU countries, the migration issue is increasingly central to public debate, a trend that is accentuated by the massive arrivals of illegal immigrants on the ground. European.
According to a survey by the Ifop institute published at the end of May by the Sunday newspaper69% of French people are in favor of a reform of the Constitution to be able to derogate from European rules in order to reduce immigration.
The tag “your migrants, our dead” was discovered Friday morning in the suburbs of Bordeaux on the permanence of a deputy of the radical left, LFI, a party accused by the far right of being favorable to mass immigration .
In the debate on immigration and crime, “the nuance has no place”, lamented Friday morning on France inter the Algerian writer Kamel Daoud. “We can limit ourselves to reading politics, identity, but the human tragedy is much more complex”, he underlined.