77% of French people do not trust the government to control immigration, according to our survey

Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: XOSE BOUZAS / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 6:00 a.m., February 8, 2024

“The fight against illegal immigration must continue to intensify. We must accept less in order to welcome more.” These words, spoken by Gabriel Attal last Tuesday during his general policy speech, clearly did not convince the French. According to a CSA survey for Europe 1, CNews and

, 77% of them do not trust the government to control immigration. A theme which was nevertheless the subject of a law, adopted with great fanfare on December 19, 2023, before being largely censored by the Constitutional Council almost two weeks ago. 

The 1,000 French people questioned are unanimous, whatever their age. 18-24 year olds are the most skeptical with 81% of respondents in this age group not having confidence in the government to control immigration. We will still notice a notable difference between CSP+ and CSP-, the former being quite significantly less severe (71%) than the latter (82%). On the other hand, women are more so than men since only 20% of respondents trust the executive led by Gabriel Attal to control immigration (compared to 26% among men). 

Close results among centrist voters

If we observe the results through the prism of the political proximity of the respondents, we note, as expected, a more marked skepticism on the right. With all the same a fairly significant gap between those close to the National Rally and those of the Republicans. The latter are still 31% to trust the government in terms of controlling immigration, while there are only 2% in the ranks of supporters of the RN. Generally speaking, 87% of right-wing voters do not believe in the government's action on this issue. 

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We will find more nuance on the left with 29% of respondents responding in the affirmative to the question: "Do you trust the government to control immigration?" The most severe are the rebels, with 85% negative responses, and the most lenient are the sympathizers of Europe-Écologie-Les-Verts and the Socialist Party, with 35% positive responses. Regarding the centrists, the results are not as categorical as imagined since 46% of Renaissance voters do not trust the government to control immigration.