Withdrawn from political life since the announcement of his cancer, the former first cop of France Gérard Collomb came out of his reserve. Shockingly. Through a tweet published on Friday, the former mayor of Lyon protested against the reception in Toulon of 230 migrants who boarded the Ocean Viking, chartered by the association SOS Méditerranée which had responsible for rescuing them at sea off the Maltese and Libyan coasts.
“The reception in France of the Viking Ocean marks a turning point in immigration policy in France,” he criticizes. When in 2018 the creation of a hot spot in Toulon was considered, I opposed it with all my might. “It is also for this reason that the former Minister of the Interior would have given up his apron, he argues while in Lyon circles, his return has always been perceived as the desire to keep control over local politics in the run-up to municipal elections.
“We open a breach by creating a precedent”
The construction of “controlled centers” intended to accommodate migrants in France, “this is what prompted me to resign from the Ministry of the Interior, in 2018, even if I did not speak about it until present”, confirms the elected official in a interview given to Point. And to argue: “All my teams [à l’époque] demonstrate to me, in fact, that given French and European legislation, if we welcome migrants into this type of centre, we will not be able to get them to leave, and that we will find ourselves in the same situation as the Italy, Malta, Greece”.
According to Gérard Collomb, Emmanuel Macron “opens a breach, by creating a precedent”. “For me, this can only encourage the networks of smugglers for whom migrants are a source of considerable earnings (…) In the coming weeks, we will no longer have boats that could come to France due to bad weather. , but from next spring, when the sea will have become calm again, you will have 10, 20 or 30 comings and goings of boats wishing to dock in France”, he justifies.
“Lead a firmer policy”
If his remarks were roundly criticized by the elected representatives of the left, they were just as widely relayed by the National Rally. “The testimony of Gérard Collomb confirms the immigrationist vision that Emmanuel Macron has in fact never ceased to have”, estimates Marine Le Pen who calls to “end this anarchic and massive immigration which creates chaos” in France. For Jordan Bardella, the “confessions” of the former Minister of the Interior are “heavy”. “He confirms that, for Emmanuel Macron, immigration is not a problem but a project”, he argued Monday morning on the antenna of CNews.
“It will be more and more difficult for power and the media to make people believe that denouncing the migratory invasion is “far right””, reacts Eric Zemmour for his part. But Gérard Collomb denies making the bed of the far right in this way. “It is by dint of not taking a decision on immigration that we play the game of the far right”, he replies, advising Emmanuel Macron to “lead a firmer policy”. “It is not massively that we must welcome, but qualitatively, to give a chance of life to those who arrive in our country”, he concludes.