The Ministry of the Interior is to unveil this Thursday the main immigration statistics for the year 2021. Already essential in the campaign, the subject should once again impose itself in the mouths of the candidates.
At a time when the defense of French sovereignty has become a particularly sensitive issue in public opinion, in the face of globalization and the European Union (consumption, employment, legislation, etc.), talking about immigration makes it possible to reaffirm at a lower cost this will, analyzes Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, expert in political communication.
Especially since with the “collective dynamic of the country, which is politically moving more and more towards the right and the hard right”, according to him, talking about immigration and denouncing it has become “an important marker for identifying “.
“It is not enough for a candidate to be elected but it is a matter of belief, it allows him to give himself content on the fact of being French, especially in relation to Europe”.
A subject hammered by the right
Concrete examples of this analysis are not difficult to find. Going back simply to yesterday (Wednesday), Eric Zemmour was thus in Calais, on the site of the former “jungle”, a highly symbolic place (up to 10,000 migrants piled up there, before it was dismantled in 2016) .
The candidate of “Reconquest!” in the presidential election took the opportunity to denounce, according to him, the failure of the Schengen Treaty (free movement of people and goods between the European countries which are members of it, editor’s note), which led, he says, “crazy immigration that destroys everything in its path” and “a Europe that has completely given up protecting itself from migratory invasions”.
His remarks came a few moments after those of Emmanuel Macron, who, on the platform of the European Parliament, had also broached this subject, believing that this Schengen area had to be reformed “to protect our external borders” and “to fight against smugglers’ networks.
Jordan Bardella, National Rally MEP, immediately reacted by believing that European countries should “neither disappear, nor be replaced, nor be overwhelmed”. An illustration of the eagerness of the right of the French political landscape and of the outgoing president to occupy the field on the subject of immigration. Leaving somewhat voiceless, or inaudible, the left.
“There was an attempt to bring the left towards this subject and questions of identity, with the Republican Spring in particular, but as a whole, it is recomposed rather around a “woke” pole, which does not at all of immigration a problem”, resumes Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet. With the consequence of leaving the field open to the camp opposite to take up a subject which, if it is not the priority for the French (purchasing power, security, health) always remains among the main concerns.