How France’s far right changed the debate on immigration

Paul MILLAR

20 June 2024 at 1:08 pm·1-min read

For the first time since its founding, France’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party has clawed its way to within arm’s reach of governing. The far-right party’s rise has fundamentally changed France’s immigration debate, dragging besieged President Emmanuel Macron's once-liberal coalition far to the right while bringing together a bloc of left-wing parties united by the desire to give undocumented migrants a pathway to legal work.

Speaking on the island of Sein off Brittany’s coast, whose men famously took to their boats to join the rag-tag Free French forces in neighbouring Britain following General Charles de Gaulle’s call to resist Nazi occupation, French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday made his own appeal to the French people. Amid his usual calls to the public to reject the “extremes” of the far-right National Rally (Rassemblement national, or RN) party and the left-wing New Popular Front, the pro-business president let slip a word he’d never said before – at least in public. The New Popular Front (NFP)’s programme, he stressed, was “totally immigrationist”.

Marta Lorimer, lecturer in politics at Cardiff University, said that the far right’s resurgence in Europe had not happened overnight.

Associated Press
Indonesia detains 103 Taiwanese in a raid in Bali involving suspected cybercrime
Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese people after a raid at a villa on the resort island of Bali, officials said Friday. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charged them with conducting cybercrime.
The Telegraph
‘This wasn’t a debate, it was a medical emergency’: Our writers give their verdicts
Follow the latest reaction in our live blog
Reuters
Taiwan warns against travel to China after execution threat
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's government raised its travel warning for China on Thursday, telling its citizens not to go unless absolutely necessary, following a threat from Beijing last week to execute those deemed "diehard" Taiwan independence supporters. Liang Wen-chieh, spokesperson for Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, told reporters the raised travel warning also applied to the Chinese-run cities of Hong Kong and Macau. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has made no secret of its dislike of President Lai Ching-te, whom it views as a "separatist", and staged two days of war games after he took office last month.
The Independent
‘I really don’t know what he said – and I don’t think he does either’: Trump pulls no punches as Biden struggles in debate
The first debate began with Biden spluttering and tripping over his own words, while Trump rambled
Fortune
Beijing backtracks on a law punishing clothing that hurts ‘the feelings of the Chinese people’ after a public outcry
People were concerned about the law's vagueness, after reported incidents where officials targeted people wearing traditional Japanese clothing.
INSIDER
China says it picked up a submarine detector dropped by a US Navy aircraft in the South China Sea
A video shared by Chinese state media shows a US Navy plane dropping something into the sea. China called it a submarine detector.
The Telegraph
South Korea is running out of children – and this country could be next
Every spring, when warm rays of sunshine herald the start of South Korea’s baking summer, fountains across Seoul’s central Gwanghwamun plaza suddenly burst into life, sending cooling jets of water into the air.
HuffPost
Social Media Predicts Outcome Of Trump-Biden Debate — And It's Hilarious
Pundits and politicians aren’t the only ones offering their hot takes on how Thursday’s CNN event will go.
HuffPost
Trump Says The 1 Line We Never Thought We'd Hear At A Presidential Debate
After President Joe Biden brought up the former president's alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump got in one last denial.
The Independent
Breaking ranks: Justice Amy Coney Barrett defies Supreme Court conservatives to back environmental protections
Justice Barrett, a Trump appointee, split from her conservative colleagues in recent decisions
Reuters
Modi's govt calls on Indian state to look into Reuters report on Foxconn hiring
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on Wednesday said it has asked the Tamil Nadu state to submit a "detailed report" after a Reuters story revealed that Apple supplier Foxconn rejected married women from iPhone assembly jobs in the country. In a statement calling for the probe, the federal government's Ministry of Labour and Employment cited the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976, saying the law "clearly stipulates that no discrimination (is) to be made while recruiting men and women workers." The ministry said it has requested a detailed report from the Labour Department of Tamil Nadu, site of a major iPhone factory where Reuters uncovered Foxconn’s practice of shunning married women from jobs.
CNN
US moves forces closer to Israel and Lebanon amid concerns of escalating cross-border fire
The US is moving forces closer to Israel and Lebanon amid concerns of escalating cross-border fire, according to two US officials, including forces able to carry out an evacuation of American citizens.
The Independent
‘This party should fall’: MAGA candidate who didn’t win Boebert’s old seat calls Republican Party ‘irredeemable’
Volunteers and supporters of grassroots Colorado Republican Ron Hanks, who’d hoped to fill the congressional seat vacated by fellow MAGA diehard Lauren Boebert, gathered Tuesday night at a Grand Junction brewery for a watch party. Hanks lamented the results — and the state of the Republican Party. Sheila Flynn reports from the third congressional district
The Guardian
Hassan Nasrallah: the man who has led Hezbollah to the brink of war with Israel
Conventional wisdom suggested he would resist triggering full-scale war but the ground appears to be shifting
The Independent
Watch: Biden arrives for first presidential debate against Trump in Atlanta
Watch as Joe Biden arrived in Atlanta to face off against Republican rival Donald Trump the first 2024 presidential debate. The 90-minute televised debate, the first between a sitting president and a former one, will air at 9 pm ET (1am GMT on Friday) on CNN and is expected to draw a huge audience. A record 84 million watched Mr Trump’s first debate in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.
HuffPost
Newsmax Slaps Very Awkward Note On Screen During Donald Trump Interview
Critics on social media suggested the chyron meant one thing.
The Independent
‘Panic mode’ Democrats begin calling for Biden to step aside after ‘horrible’ debate performance against Trump
‘Need to have Harris take over. Cleanest option,’ one Democrat strategist told The Independent
BBC
EU leaders to agree on top jobs despite Meloni discontent
The Italian leader has made it clear she resents having been left out of a deal to divide up the EU's top jobs.
AFP News
Israel says it can send Lebanon 'back to Stone Age' as UN warns against war
Israel said it does not want war in Lebanon but could send its neighbour "back to the Stone Age", as the UN's humanitarian chief warned such a conflict would be "potentially apocalyptic".It's potentially apocalyptic," warned Griffiths, whose term ends this week.
Euronews
Seoul warns Russia over North Korea-supplied weapons
The warning came at a time when Russia forced 10,000 recently naturalised citizens to fight in the war in Ukraine, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the battered eastern Donetsk region.

Latest stories