JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP
The 55-year-old senior French civil servant was head of the EU border agency from 2015 to 2022, before resigning. He will appear third on Jordan Bardella’s list.
The former director of Frontex, the EU agency responsible for border control, announced in an interview with JDD published Saturday evening to join the National Rally (RN) for the European elections in June. Patrice Leggeri will appear third 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 testify to this”declared Fabrice Leggeri at Sunday Newspaper .
This 55-year-old senior French civil servant, an Enarque and a normalien, held the position of director of Frontex from 2015 to 2022, before resigning. “My goal 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 declared to the JDD. “The European elections of June 9 represent a unique opportunity to put France and Europe back on the right path. This is why I join the list led by Jordan Bardella HAS”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 appointment 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. .
“I was put under pressure”
Fabrice Leggeri resigned from the executive management of Frontex when he was the target of a non-public report from this organization which, according to press information, accused him of “not having respected the procedures, having demonstrated disloyalty towards the European Union” and to be responsible for a “bad personal management”. “Regarding these accusations, it is important to note that neither the European Parliament nor the Frontex board has found concrete evidence to support them.”affirms 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. Based 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.
“Your job is to bring back the migrantsâ€
The former boss of Frontex noted, during the time he headed the European body, a significant turning point in the policy towards the migratory flow. While its mission since 2015 has consisted of “protect France and Europe from the migratory surge”, From 2019, with the arrival of Ursula von der Leyen at the head of the European Commission, the new Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson would have recommended that she “bring in migrants and welcome them”. “Whether you like it or not, we are an aging continent and so you have to let them in,” the new commissioner would have said in substance.
Fabrice Leggeri explains that he entered politics after observing this reorientation. His goal, “fight against this European Commission which encourages and tolerates this migratory submergence”, he says, recalling the RN’s promise to survey the French by referendum to change the Constitution on the duty to welcome migrants.