"Our compatriots are fed up with social fraud," said the minister on BFMTV-RMC. "They have no desire to see that people can benefit from aid, send them back to the Maghreb or elsewhere, when they are not entitled to it. It's not made for that, the social model," said the minister, ensuring not to wink "to the RN.
The leader of the Unsubmissive France (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon rebelled on Twitter. "Dear Muslim compatriots or natives like me from the Maghreb, prepare yourselves. To distract the government announces through the voice of Bruno Le Maire a new campaign to point the finger at you. Cold blood," he wrote.
For the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, "the far right dangerously fills the government vacuum," he lamented, regretting on Twitter that the government "mobilizes racist prejudices to avoid recalling that social fraud is essentially the fact of employers and that tax fraud is incommensurate".
"Day 1 of the 100 days of appeasement: flatter xenophobic prejudices," said the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud.
Among the Insoumis, the boss of the deputies of La France insoumise Mathilde Panot, also denounced the "big string". "You will not extinguish social anger by sowing the poison of division. We now know that your moral decline is added to the political vacuum. On May 1, the united people respond to you in the streets," she tweeted.
And the rebellious MP Thomas Porte recalled that "+social fraud+ is estimated at 1 to 2 billion euros per year. On the other hand, tax fraud is between 80 and 100 billion euros per year", inviting Bruno Le Maire to "go to Switzerland", "rather than talking about the Maghreb and taking up the racist elements of the extreme right".
Green MP Aurélien Taché said the French "are especially fed up with people like Bernard Arnault, the richest man in the world, asking for Belgian nationality to stop paying taxes in France." "They understood that you are here to distract," he tweeted to Bruno Le Maire.
The President of the Republic promised, during his speech on Monday evening, to "strengthen the control of illegal immigration", while planning "strong announcements from May" against delinquency and social and tax fraud.
© 2023 AFP