"I fully share the position taken by Xavier Bertrand: we must renegotiate the Touquet agreements", she said during a trip to the port of Calais with elected officials including Mr. Bertrand, president of the region Hauts-de-France.

"The Touquet agreements put too many burdens on France (...) The British must play their full part in this effort to secure their border and, if they do not want renegotiation, their border will be returned to them. ", she added.

She also considers it necessary to "organize the repatriation" of "illegal immigrants who are on our soil without title", proposing to use the European border agency Frontex to "bring these illegal immigrants home to their country of origin".

Signed in 2003 by Paris and London, the "Treaty of Touquet" fixes in France the common border between the two countries.

It was then supplemented by other bilateral agreements strengthening France's control and security of the border, with London committing to pay financial compensation.

This agreement is accused on the French side of fueling the migration crisis in the Calais region by blocking potential immigrants to the United Kingdom.

Ms. Pécresse went, after Calais, to Boulogne-sur-Mer to meet representatives of the fishermen.

The latter said on Saturday they were "abandoned" by the European Commission in discussions with London to obtain post-Brexit fishing licenses in British waters.

"The Commission cannot just brush aside a subject which was at the heart of the Brexit negotiations", declared Valérie Pécresse.

She also attacked "the President of the Republic who gives lessons, a lot, but who does not follow the files as I would follow them".

She criticized him in particular for "taking over the presidency of the European Union in the midst of the presidential election".

"It's a mistake, because he will be forced to make compromises and he will not be able to defend the interests of France. He will weaken us," she said.

"And he does it for his personal interests, his political interests, and not for your own interests."

Under the agreement signed at the end of 2020 between London and Brussels, European fishermen can continue to work in British waters if they can prove that they were fishing there before.

But for more than eleven months, Paris and London have been arguing over the nature and extent of the supporting documents to be provided.

© 2021 AFP