And the latest recruit of the RN is called… Fabrice Leggeri. The former director of Frontex, the EU agency responsible for border control, announced in an interview with JDD, published Saturday evening, that he is joining the National Rally (RN) for the European elections in June and will appear in third place on Jordan Bardella’s list. “The RN has a concrete plan and the capacity to carry it out. We are determined to combat migratory overwhelm, which the European Commission and the Eurocrats do not consider as a problem, but rather as a project: I can attest to this,” said he declared.
This 55-year-old senior French civil servant, enarque and normalien, held the management of Frontex from 2015 to 2022, before resigning following a disciplinary investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office, Olaf. He was a controversial director of Frontex, regularly accused by NGOs of tolerating illegal pushbacks of migrants and had established himself as a defender of the impermeability of European borders.
“My objective is to put my experience and expertise at the service of the French. Having led Frontex for almost seven years and worked for the State for around thirty years, particularly in the areas of security and immigration management, this decision is very coherent,” he told JDD. “The European elections of June 9 represent a unique opportunity to put France and Europe back on the right path,” he added.
Jordan Bardella, head of the list and president of the RN, is currently leading all the polls for this European election, around 30%, with around ten points ahead of the Macronist majority. The addition of this senior official is a sign of the far-right party’s desire to expand its pool of experts and technocrats to gain credibility in order to one day exercise power.
Anti-fraud office investigation
“Former boss of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri was forced to resign, dropped by Emmanuel Macron because he was acting against the submersion of Europe,” said Jordan Bardella in a message on the X network.
The senior official was the target of a non-public report from Olaf which, according to press information, criticized him for “not having respected procedures, for having demonstrated disloyalty towards the European Union” and being responsible for “bad personal management”. “Regarding these accusations, it is important to note that neither the European Parliament nor the Frontex board of directors have found concrete evidence to support them,” says Fabrice Leggeri in the JDD.
“In reality, for wanting to control immigration, I came under pressure and felt general abandonment. The French government pressured me to resign. Germany was not inclined to support me. The European Commission, clearly hostile towards me, wanted me to leave,” he added. Headquartered in Warsaw, Frontex is one of the most politically exposed agencies in the European Union. Bringing together coast guards and border guards, its resources have been regularly reinforced to deal with the influx of migrants at European borders.