"Less Zemmour, more love", "long live the France of diversity and inclusion", could we read on signs brandished by the demonstrators, among whom was the farmer Cédric Herrou, prosecuted - then finally released in March - for having escorted migrants from Italy and organized a reception camp in 2016 in the Roya valley, near the Franco-Italian border.
"These people are acting against the survival of France. I consider them to be enemies. They will be treated as enemies. There will be no more subsidies that will be paid. I sanction them. Cédric Herrou should be in prison. They are accomplices of the smugglers", declared at the exit of the border post Eric Zemmour, who must hold a meeting in Cannes on Saturday.
"It's not misery that makes immigration. They come to France because it's the most extensive social benefits market in the world," castigated the far-right candidate.
“There will be no more tolerance towards these associations which rot the lives of police officers”, he added, describing as “apocalyptic” the timid resumption of immigration in 2021, according to figures from the Ministry of Police. the Interior published Thursday.
“Here the police spend their time sending back migrants who keep coming back”, he further denounced, proposing to reinstate the offense of illegal residence, and to “reinstate collective charters for illegal immigrants”.
Asylum applications, expulsions, issuance of visas... All immigration sectors showed the first signs of recovery in 2021, after a year 2020 of record drop in migratory flows due in particular to the health crisis.
© 2022 AFP