France is weighing a proposal for a temporary halt to legal immigration as political debate sharpens ahead of the next presidential election.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has suggested suspending most legal immigration for two to three years, saying the pause should be paired with higher wages so jobs often filled by low-paid foreign workers are taken up by French citizens.
Speaking to broadcaster LCI, Darmanin said that once the moratorium ends, France should move to a quota system and hold a referendum to decide future immigration levels.
France currently has about 4.5 million legal immigrants, accounting for more than 8 percent of the adult population, alongside an estimated 700,000 undocumented migrants, while opinion polls show strong public backing for tougher controls.
The proposal comes as the right-wing National Rally, led by Jordan Bardella, tops opinion polls for the election, with former prime minister Gabriel Attal trailing behind. Darmanin, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s party, has described himself as presidential material and called for a primary to choose a candidate, despite his earlier immigration reform bill being partly struck down by the Constitutional Council and his insistence that no new legislation is planned in the short term.
Image credit: Danielle Rice
What a joke. France has a huge problem expelling criminal illegals.
Those decisions about immigration are made in Bruxelles by von der liar and her clique.
The only remedy to disfuncionning globalists Europe is : for France FREXIT, getting our own currency back as well as getting out of the warmongering NATO.