“This government ridicules our country.” The extreme right criticizes the executive’s policy after 26 of the 44 migrant minors disembarked from the Ocean Viking ship in Toulon on November 11 decided to flee the hotel where they were being treated. Thus, he denounces an alleged laxity of the government in immigration matters.
Marine Le Pen believes that “Emmanuel Macron and Gérald Darmanin have their ‘Leonardo affair,'” named after a Roma immigrant and minor whose expulsion in the middle of a school trip had created controversy in 2013. More generally, the line chief of deputies of the National Group judge that the executive is “humiliated” and that the situation is “out of control”.
“The government is completely powerless”
The same story with the niece of the deputy from Pas-de-Calais, the Reconquista party during the last presidential elections. Thus, according to Marion Maréchal, “Gérald Darmanin “controls absolutely nothing and ridicules our country.” As for his superior in the party, Éric Zemmour, he asked a question and then an answer in the same tweet: “Laugh or cry ? Every time, I wonder if we can sink deeper. The answer is invariably yes.
The case is widely reacting to the extreme right. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan also addressed the issue. Questioned by BFMTV, the president of Debout la France judges that “the government lied”, because “it said ‘we help migrants but they will see that we will be very firm’ […] and in fact, he is completely overwhelmed, helpless.”
“We Can’t Oppose”
Even so, current legislation cannot prevent the flight of these migrant minors.
“The international convention on the rights of the child, which was ratified by France in 1990, requires that all minors be protected by the administration, which in its decisions must take into account the best interests of children”, explains our editorialist Mathieu Croissandeau on BFMTV.
And to continue: “That is why no minor can be the object of an expulsion measure, that is, be expelled.” Thus, Jean-Louis Masson, president of the Republicans (LR) of Var, stressed on BFMTV that there is no “failure” on the part of the community to regret in this matter.
“We cannot oppose (when they leave), and unfortunately for them, they are put in situations that can be dangerous but then we cannot stop them by force,” he insists.
However, “we see these controversies reappearing quite regularly about unaccompanied minors with a particular complaint that it is due to the difficulty of establishing with certainty their age”, explains Mathieu Croissandeau. Are they minors, and therefore subject to special legislation, or not? Thus, Laure Lavalette, deputy RN for Var, joked when evoking “minors who are as much as I am Archbishop”.
Source: BFM TV
