With the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the British Nigel Farage, Jordan Bardella managed to bring together almost the entire political class against him. The president of the National Rally (RN) symbolically signed an agreement on immigration with his anti-European ally on Friday September 4 during the Reform UK party congress in the United Kingdom.
In this text which imagines a victory for these two allied parties in the next elections, one section provides in particular for the return to France of migrants intercepted in British waters. The measure was immediately criticized by the political adversaries of the president of the RN, from Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Edouard Philippe. Franceinfo looks back on three days of controversy.
Jordan Bardella agrees with Reform UK
On Friday, the boss of the RN gave a twenty-minute speech in English, in front of an audience of British activists from the anti-immigration Reform UK party, gathered in Birmingham, in central England. Called to be Prime Minister in the event of Marine Le Pen's victory in the 2027 presidential election, the leader of the far-right party notably promised that his government "will do everything in its power to ensure that France is no longer the gateway to illegal immigration to the United Kingdom". This oath was then sealed by the signing, on the same stage, of a “memorandum of understanding” with Nigel Farage.
In detail, this document specifies that the two far-right parties undertake "in the event that [they] form the next respective governments of France and the United Kingdom", to "conduct a restrictive national migration policy". The Memorandum of Understanding states, among other things, that "when an illegal migrant arrives in the UK from France, they will be immediately detained and deported to their country of origin, without the opportunity to seek asylum."
Next comes the most controversial measure: "The United Kingdom will intercept boats leaving the French coast and entering British territorial waters and will return the people on board to France. France will return these people to their country of origin." The leader of Reform UK assured that “people who came to France with the intention of returning to our country will not succeed”.
Critics immediately fly
The initials affixed by Jordan Bardella at the bottom of this document very quickly aroused criticism from his adversaries. The Minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, denounced on Friday on X a "humiliation". Before describing the agreement as “submission contrary to our interests and our sovereignty”.
Edouard Philippe, president of Horizons and presidential candidate, immediately criticized X for a "change of heart" by the RN. “Seeing Jordan Bardella sign an agreement which plans to send back to France the migrants intercepted in the Channel, we did not see that coming,” quipped the mayor of Le Havre, wondering in passing if Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the far-right party, “is on the same line”.
Jordan Bardella was quick to respond. "The migrant camps piling up in the north of France, it's you. The thousands of illegal crossings of the Channel, it's you. The immigration records, it's you again," he accused. “Contrary to what you say, we will stem the flow of illegal immigration into the UK by doing what you have failed to do: protect our national borders and enforce our laws.”
The Renaissance presidential candidate, Gabriel Attal, for his part spoke on Friday on X of an “unworthy weakness” of the president of the National Rally. "Would our country become the barrier guard of the English? Not voting for Le Pen in 2027 becomes a question of national dignity", finally reacted Jean-Luc Mélenchon, rebellious presidential candidate, on X.
Presidential candidates react
The rebellious leader outbid himself during his back-to-school speech at the Lille clearance sale on Saturday. Jean-Luc Mélenchon described the comments made the day before by Jordan Bardella in England as “lamentable”. “Without having been asked for anything, he promised the English fascists that the French would take back the people they wanted to throw out. (...) How can we be so miserable? No, it was not France that was speaking, it was only a fascist with no reputation,” he asserted.
In the same place, Gabriel Attal described Jordan Bardella's intervention as "absolutely astonishing", considering the signing of the memorandum of understanding as "a total submission" from France. “We are reaching levels of unpreparedness and submission which are almost never seen in the recent history of the National Rally. (...) I believe that this is illustrative of their foreign policy which is that of great submission towards other powers, sometimes dictatorial,” he insisted.
Also present in Lille, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, denounced Jordan Bardella's "prostration" in front of Nigel Farage. At the microphone of ICI Nord, the man who is also running in the presidential election also accused Jordan Bardella of having "proposed to become a subcontractor of Great Britain".
The RN is struggling to justify this agreement
Asked to clarify things on BFMTV late Saturday afternoon, Jordan Bardella tried to mitigate the controversy. “The protocol does not provide for us to allow migrants to cross and for these migrants to be rejected or pushed back to the French coast. This protocol provides for the cessation of illegal immigration to France,” he insisted.
The president of the National Rally assured that the agreement would not result in migrants intercepted in the Channel being returned to France, because "there will be no more migrants crossing the Channel". As for Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe, whom Jordan Bardella described as "crazy immigrationists", they have "no lesson in immigration management to give us", he mocked.
The proposal initialed by Jordan Bardella is still quite difficult to justify for the executives of the RN, a party which has made the fight against illegal immigration a mantra. MP Edwige Diaz on Saturday accused her opponents of “inventing controversies”. She assured BFMTV that the migrants would be brought back to France to be “placed in detention in anticipation of their expulsion”.
