The National Rally has several times welcomed and shared the political positions of Bruno Retailleau. And the Minister of the Interior could grant a request from Marine Le Pen.
Bruno Retailleau is categorical: we need a new immigration law. This subject “is part of the emergencies” according to the new Minister of the Interior, guest of RTL this Thursday, October 3, who took up migration policy as soon as he arrived at Place Beauvau. The elected official from the very right-wing branch of the Les Républicains party also has a precise idea of what he wants to include in a future immigration law: bilateral agreements and incentive or dissuasive measures to push countries to accept deportations. of their nationals, or even new rules concerning the detention of delinquents and criminals subject to obligations to leave the territory.
Measures that he has already outlined in the media since his appointment as minister and which arouse the enthusiasm of the National Rally (RN). If Bruno Retailleau defends his own political ideas, his desire to put a legislative project on the table sounds like a victory for the far right, which has demanded the vote on a new immigration law for the first quarter of 2025. Marine Le Penpresident of the RN group in the National Assembly, presented this point as a “red line” to respect to ensure the support of her party in the face of a motion of censure, very formally warning the Prime Minister after his speech of general policy. The Minister of the Interior therefore responds favorably to the RN’s request.
The overlap between the ideas of Bruno Retailleau and those defended by the RN on several points, including immigration, earned the minister to be compared to a “spokesperson for the RN” by the Var deputy Laure Lavalette at the microphone of BFMTV October 1st. Role that the minister refuses to take on: “I am the spokesperson for the French. My obsession is to speak the language that the French understand, not a technocratic, Parisian language, which appeals to the media and political microcosm” he said. -he retorted on RTL. As for those who consider his policy too right-wing and brutal, he replies: “It’s not brutal, it’s firmness. The firmness of law, order and security.” And the minister added: “I want to protect the French against disorder and insecurity and I will not make lukewarm water.” A speech which, again, brings him closer to the extreme right.
It must be said that, no offense to the minister, his ideas have been endorsed by the RN. Laure Lavalette assured that she would “take everything” from Bruno Retailleau’s measures “to fight against immigration” and that she could “only agree” with the minister’s vision. Who had unrolled his line in the JDD the day before. Positions recalled on the antenna of RTL : organization of “grouped flights” to return nationals who entered French territory illegally to their country of origin, the extension up to 210 days of administrative detention of migrants in an irregular situation who have committed certain crimes or even its vision of the rule of law.
One last point which caused controversy. While the Prime Minister indirectly reframed Bruno Retailleau by recalling the sacredness of the rule of law, the minister clarified his remarks: “I am attached to the rule of law. […] These are intangible principles, but the source of the rule of law must be articulated with the sovereignty of the people. I never wanted to abolish the rule of law, I simply want that within the rule of law we move the cursor because there are laws which do not protect the French and these I want to move them.” The minister finally reduces the subject to a question: “Do we want to protect dangerous individuals in their individual freedoms or protect society? I am Minister of the Interior and I want to protect the French.” And once again, the RN approves.