Solene Delinger
modified to
10:53 a.m., November 13, 2022
Bruno Retailleau is the guest of the “Grand Rendez-vous” this Sunday morning on Europe 1 and CNews. At the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk, the president of the LR group in the Senate rebounds on the affair of the Ocean Viking, this humanitarian ship welcomed at the port of Toulon with on board 234 migrants. He claims to want to “declare war on smugglers” and denounces the “right-of-humanism” of NGOs which, according to him, would serve them.
After the Ocean Viking affair, Bruno Retailleau declares that he wants to wage “war on smugglers”. Invited to the “Grand Rendez-vous” this morning on Europe 1 and CNews, the president of the LR group in the Senate protested following France’s reception of the humanitarian ship with 234 migrants on board.
NGOs declared as “auxiliaries” to smugglers
For Bruno Retailleau, the NGOs coming to pick up the boats a few kilometers from the African coast become accomplices of the smugglers, whom he wants to fight. “Many of these NGOs have been declared as a sort of auxiliary to these smuggler networks,” he said facing Sonia Mabrouk. “Now there are several documents that inform us of this kind of dangerous liaisons. There is the Frontex report of 2017. And there are several investigations by the Italian police, including an investigation whose public report appeared in March 2021. There have been infiltrations and searches. They have clearly shown that there has been sharing, in particular of GPS data, between these boats and the networks for some time.
“France has bent and it will bend”
For Bruno Retailleau, the opening of the port of Toulon is equivalent to “opening Pandora’s box”. “From now on, the smugglers, the traffickers of human beings, these mafias which operate, which earn billions and with the support of these NGOs which circulate and sail in the Mediterranean, will know that France has bowed and that it will bow. is a turning point”.
The president of the LR group in the Senate believes that France should not have hosted the Ocean Viking. “If doctors had to come on board to treat people who were in danger, we bring them on board, but we don’t welcome the boat,” he insists. “Besides, we accompany. The human rights of these OGNs trample maritime law”, he concludes.