Immigration: on the right and on the far right, the same obsession with charter

Every day until the presidential election, “Liberation” dissects the candidates’ proposals. From Valérie Pécresse to Eric Zemmour, the rights wish to reinforce the expulsions of foreigners in an irregular situation.

This is one of the flagship proposals of the right and the extreme right on immigration: we should deport more “clandestines” and rejected asylum seekers. And not just anyhow. On August 28, Valérie Pécresse, the LR candidate, used these words during a meeting in Brive: “The place of an illegal immigrant is in a charter to return home.The expression recalls that of Edith Cresson who, thirty years earlier, then Prime Minister of François Mitterrand, had declared on TF1 that France should have “use of special planes to drive illegal immigrants and rejected asylum seekers back to their countries”. The proposal caused an uproar, especially on the left. Edith Cresson also analysed: “The current system is not working.”

Germany, a biased example

It is on this same observation that candidate LR relies to support her proposal. In her program, she states: “We must immediately resume the chartering of outward charter planes with the support of the European agency Frontex, which provides both financing and escort. In the first half of 2021 alone, Germany used it four times more than France. The current president…