"France will not take in migrants from Lampedusa. (...) Taking in more people is not the way to stem a flow that obviously affects our ability to integrate." Speaking on TV channel TF1 on Wednesday, September 20, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin sent a "firm" message, as the Italian island of Lampedusa was confronted with the arrival of several thousand migrants in the space of a few days. This message, albeit tempered by a call to protect refugees, contrasts with that of Pope Francis, who is scheduled to be in Marseille on September 22 and 23 for the Rencontres Méditerranéennes. The pope is expected to devote a prayer to migrants who have disappeared at sea.
The pontiff made Lampedusa a symbol of his message of openness, right from his first visit in 2013, to denounce the "globalization of indifference." On Saturday, he is due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Marseille. Will they discuss the subject? Will this be an opportunity to find common ground, or a chance to gauge the differences between them?
"For the pope, the welcoming [of refugees] must be very broad, and it is obvious that there is no such willingness on the part of the president, as the interior minister has reminded us," said Eric Millot, director of the National Mission and Migration Service of the French Bishops' Conference. In an opinion piece published by Le Monde on January 2, 2017, when he was only a candidate in the presidential election, Macron lamented that when "Italy alone was dealing with the arrival of refugees in Lampedusa, to the point that Pope Francis was deeply concerned, neither France nor Germany was there to help." He felt that Germany had subsequently "saved our collective dignity by welcoming refugees in distress."
With the tests of power, his vision has become less liberal and more strict. "In office, you become fully aware of the importance of certain issues like security and the threat of terrorism. The Ministry of the Interior, by nature conformist, has played its part to the full, and Emmanuel Macron is acutely aware of the country's social breakdown and the rise of the far right," said Pascal Brice, former director of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons and current president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors, a body gathering around 900 organizations active in social work. Brice added, "I share this concern, but what policy do we draw from it? That's the question."
In his six years in power, Macron has managed to push through two immigration laws. The first, known as the "Collomb law" and passed in 2018, split the president's majority in the Assemblée Nationale, as it was deemed too harsh by the left. The second (on which the government wants to reach an agreement with the right) is due to be debated in the Sénat in early November. Between these two pieces of legislation, Macron made immigration a theme of the major citizen consultation launched in the wake of the Yellow Vest movement, even though it was not on the list of grievances drawn up after the "great national debate," just as he wanted a debate on immigration in Parliament, in 2019.
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