Jordan Bardella criticizes Emmanuel Macron's migration policy during a speech in England

The attack is usual, but this time it came from across the Channel: “Emmanuel Macron has failed to protect France” against immigration, said Jordan Bardella on Friday September 4 from England, where he was invited by his anti-European ally Nigel Farage. “The biggest challenge is the one we all know: regaining control of immigration. In recent years, Emmanuel Macron has failed to protect our country. For him, mass immigration is not a problem, it is a project,” declared the president of the National Rally (RN) during the Reform UK party congress in Birmingham.

A twenty-minute speech in English, referring to Napoleon and Charles De Gaulle, in front of the architect of Brexit and his troops, from whom Jordan Bardella took up the famous slogan “take back control”, affirming in particular that “France must regain control” in matters of immigration and that the two countries must “together regain control of (their) borders”. Intended for Matignon in the event of Marine Le Pen's victory in the presidential election next spring, he promised that his government "will do everything in its power to ensure that France is no longer the gateway for illegal immigration to the United Kingdom." Oath then sealed by the signing, on the same stage, of a “memorandum of understanding” with Nigel Farage.

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“Take back control”

According to this document, the British will be able to “send back to France” all people arrested on boats “intercepted in (their) territorial waters”, underlined the leader of Reforme UK, assuring that thus “people who came to France with the intention of returning to our country will not succeed”. Nigel Farage's party is in turmoil on Friday after the broadcast of a report the day before showing one of his close collaborators offering to circumvent the law to obtain a donation from abroad.

“It still looks like a smokescreen, as there is in all democracies with regard to patriotic parties. And so I am wary of what is said in the press. There you go, I'm waiting to have everyone's versions before expressing myself. And so no, this is not likely to call into question the cooperation that we are building with Nigel,” responded Jordan Bardella during a joint press conference.