Cllr Sanchia Alasia reports on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s anti-Schengen, pro-protectionism speech last week, as the French election campaign hots up.
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Last week Nicolas Sarkozy, during one of his biggest campaign rallies, just over a month from the elections, indulged once again in anti-immigration rhetoric in a bid to appease potential Front National voters by calling for the greater protection of French borders.
This would include the proposal of removing France from the Schengen accord, which 27 member states operate, unless tighter controls by the European Union on illegal immigrants could be imposed.
Marine Le Pen, who is anti-immigrant and anti-EU, has stated Sarkozy is simply copying her policies, one of them being to withdraw from the Schengen accord.
Sarkozy went on to say that if elected he would halve immigration from 180,000 to 100,000 per year as well as make the process of obtaining naturalisation much tighter, which he claims will help immigrants integrate better into French society.
Socialist rival Francois Hollande’s campagin have criticised the announcement, which seems to be in response to the rising popularity of the Front National, and is set to become a central campaign theme over the coming weeks.
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President Sarkozy also stated that the European way of life should be defended by way of protectionist policies whereby companies working on national projects could only use products made within the European Union, even though this may be a breach of EU fair competition rules.
Sarkozy closed his speech by re-emphasising the ban on the public wearing of the niqab which he describes as “contrary to the values of the Republic”. He is currently ahead of Le Pen but behind Hollande, the favourite to win the French presidential elections.
18 Responses to “Desperate Sarkozy cranks up the anti-immigration rhetoric”
Laid Back Farmer
#UK : Desperate Sarkozy cranks up the anti-immigration rhetoric http://t.co/DIQn0zic
Alastair
This isn’t desperate it’s the same strategy he used to head off the far right last time, I predict he’ll say a lot worse and more racist before the first round then move to the centre for the second round. Hollande seems a far more competent campaigner than Royal and may be able to head off this strategy.
His position has improved in the polls but from his point of view it doesn’t matter if he’s behind on the third ballot as long as he keeps ahead of la pen, with her out of the race he has a whole week to try and overtake Hollande.
Hollande should win this election if he can’t then the French left need a massive re think
Sanchia Alasia
if hollande doesn’t win it will be a massive disappointment
Bugger (the Panda)
The polls could well prove to be inaccurate as I believe many le Pen voters are disinclined to say so publicly.
Sarkozy v Hollande: French presidential race hots up | Left Foot Forward
[…] comes on the back of Sarkozy’s largest rally last week, where he pledged to halve the number of immigrants and re-negotiate France participation in the Schengen accord. […]