French Prime Minister François Bayrou drew sharp rebukes, including from some of his allies, on Tuesday, January 28, after saying that immigrants in France had led to a growing feeling of "submersion."
"Foreign contributions are positives for a people, so long as they don't exceed a proportion," Bayrou told the LCI news channel late on Monday. "But as soon as you get the feeling of submersion, of no longer recognizing your own country, its lifestyle and its culture, from that instant you get rejection." He said such a feeling was not yet widespread, but it was growing and "a certain number of cities and regions" were already experiencing it.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, both immigration hardliners, defended Bayrou, with Darmanin saying it was "progress" to recognize that there was "a proportion of foreigners on French soil that must not be exceeded."
The left-wing opposition, meanwhile, accused Bayrou of spreading far-right ideas, and centrist allies have also criticized him.
Assemblée Nationale President Yaël Braun-Pivet, a fellow member of the Macron-aligned centrist coalition, distanced herself from Bayrou. "I would never have made such statements and I am embarrassed by them," she said, adding that France "has always welcomed" immigrants.
Green party parliamentary leader Cyrielle Chatelain said she was "extremely shocked" by Bayrou's "shameful" remarks, which she said reflected "a false idea fueled by the far right." Radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) party parliamentary leader Mathilde Panot called Retailleau and his allies' position on immigration "racist."
In a post on X, Socialist parliamentary leader Boris Vallaud wrote it was "disgraceful" of Bayrou to "borrow the words and the fantasies of the far right." Vallaud had also said that Bayrou's remarks would influence his party's decision on whether or not to support the prime minister in a future no-confidence motion.
When asked about his remarks during question time in Parliament on Tuesday, Bayrou said he stood by his choice of terms. However, in his defense, he pointed to the French Indian Ocean department of Mayotte, which has been affected by mass undocumented immigration from the neighboring Comoros. "Anybody who is faced with the situation in Mayotte – which is not alone in France – can understand that 'submersion' is the most fitting term," Bayrou said. "It is not the words that are shocking, it's the reality," he said.
The vice president of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Sébastien Chenu, cited Bayrou's remarks as evidence that his movement had "won the ideological battle."
According to France's national statistics agency INSEE, there were some 5.6 million foreigners living in France in 2023, representing 8.2% of the overall population, compared with 6.5% in 1975.