Marine Le Pen denounces “yet another publicity stunt to make people forget absolutely dramatic figures”

“The gangs have become gangs and the gangs are becoming armies,” assures the president of the RN group in the National Assembly.

“We are here faced with yet another publicity stunt to make us forget absolutely dramatic figures, particularly in Marseille,” denounces Wednesday March 20 on France Inter Marine Le Pen, president of the RN group in the National Assembly, the day after Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Marseille to extol the merits of the so-called “XXL square net” operation started on Monday against drug trafficking. For the former candidate for the presidential election, the term of “XXL, it’s perhaps a bit exaggerated, in reality it’s S, operation small”.

According to the latest report from the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters, as of Tuesday evening, 98 people were arrested as part of this “clearance” operation and four weapons, less than 9 kg of cannabis, 339 g of cocaine and 12 vehicles were seized. The RN deputy for Pas-de-Calais criticizes this assessment, presenting it as low given the number of law enforcement officers mobilized since the start of the week. “We’re not going to go far.”, she believes. Marine Le Pen calls into question the real effectiveness on the ground, while the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced at the end of January that a thousand deal points were eliminated in 2023. The National Rally MP affirms that when a “deal point is deleted on Monday, on Tuesday it is replenished at 200 meters”.

The RN deputy believes that it “It’s high time to tackle” drug trafficking in Marseille. Marine Le Pen also fears that the Marseille city will be “falling into the hands of drug traffickers”. “The gangs have become gangs and the gangs are becoming (…) armies which operate in the field of drug trafficking, including through the intimidation of elected officials, or even corruption, targeted assassinations”she laments.

In general, Marine Le Pen judges the situation “very worrying” in France, because, according to her, drug trafficking “do not only affect big cities, but also the countryside”. She criticizes government action to put an end to it. The elected RN considers that it “we must first control the borders and our migration policy, because obviously drug trafficking uses illegal immigrants in particular”. “We also need a penal policy, and a prison policy” so that “drug traffickers [soient] placed in secure quarters to prevent them from continuing to operate from prison”adds Marine Le Pen.