Paris (AFP)
Xavier Bertrand, possible right-wing candidate for the 2022 presidential election, calls for "regaining control" in the face of Islamism with "a reform of the Constitution by referendum" on the themes of secularism and immigration, in a interview with Figaro posted online on Friday.
"For years we have no longer controlled the growth of Islamism, insecurity in certain neighborhoods, irregular immigration" affirms the ex-LR president of the Hauts-de-France region, for whom "only a referendum on secularism, the protection of the French and immigration give full legitimacy to act in depth ".
Secularism is already in the Constitution but it is according to Xavier Bertrand "necessary (to) specify the content and the scope" to "counter the communitarian thrusts".
On immigration, he believes that "France has lost control" and proposes to "harden" policy with annual "quotas", as well as, for countries refusing to take back their expelled nationals, the end of aid development and visas "including for their leaders".
"I wish that anyone who enters the territory, even as an asylum seeker, solemnly undertakes to respect our republican values and our laws, during an interview practiced by a person of the opposite sex", adds- he does.
Regarding the bill on separatism, examined Wednesday in the Council of Ministers, Xavier Bertrand believes that there is "no sufficiently powerful measure in this text to eradicate Islamism".
Pointing to a "logic of conquest and domination" of the Islamists, he warns: "It will be them or us", because "for them, France is a symbol to be destroyed".
"We can win this fight without giving up the rule of law but the law, if it does not protect enough, must be adapted with natural safeguards," he says.
In this context, the urgency is "to complete our legislative and regulatory arsenal to respond to concrete situations", according to Xavier Bertrand, who mentions among other things "the push of political Islam in business", the "communitarian candidacies" in the elections or even "the question of foreign funding" of the French Council of Muslim Worship.
Xavier Bertrand, who could be a recourse from the right after François Baroin threw in the towel, also spares Gérald Darmanin, for whom he "still has friendship and esteem".
"A Minister of the Interior does not replace the absence of deep convictions of Emmanuel Macron on security and immigration issues," he said.
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