Marine Le Pen hates hearing the name "Front National" (FN) mentioned, so Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin insists on doing so. Since June 2018 and the far-right party's name change to distance itself from past controversial positions, Darmanin has taken pleasure in never calling it by its new name, Rassemblement National (RN) – a form of proof that he would yield nothing to the far-right movement. In less than two months, however, this minister of the interior and French overseas territories has endorsed two concepts that were once espoused by the FN.
Following the inclusion of a form of "national preference" in an immigration bill on December 19 – which has since had many of its measures struck down by France's Constitutional Council – on February 11, Darmanin promised to revise the Constitution to include the end of "right of soil" citizenship in Mayotte. A measure that he had previously refused to concede to historic far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, on March 15, 2018, on France 2 public television. At the time, he had denounced a racist "discourse" and the infringement of a "republican right": "There are not two categories of French people, there are not two categories of territories."
Six years after dismissing this idea in response to the far-right 2002 presidential election finalist, the interior minister justified restricting local access to French nationality by the need to cut the "literal attractiveness" of Mayotte. This Indian Ocean island – where half of the 310,000 inhabitants (according to 2017 French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies census data) are foreign nationals – has been paralyzed by roadblocks set up by "citizens' collectives," protesting against insecurity and uncontrolled immigration.
Whatever the uncertain outcome of such a constitutional reform, the far right – and part of the right wing – was quick to call for its extension to the entire national territory. "What's happening in Mayotte is to be watched with great interest, because it's the future of our territory," RN president Jordan Bardella repeated on Franceinfo public broadcaster on Monday, February 12. His rival, Marion Maréchal, head of the Reconquête! (far right) list for the upcoming European elections, also said the previous day that what "Mayotte is experiencing today is what mainland [France] will be experiencing in 30, 40, 50 years if we do nothing" – all without backing up her predictions with more demographic data.
In addition to abolishing "right of soil" French citizenship throughout France, at the Assemblée Nationale on Tuesday, February 13, Marine Le Pen called on the government to re-establish "the return of the state in all its dimensions" in Mayotte, by introducing a state of emergency and "national priority." In other words, the cornerstone of her presidential campaign platforms: To prioritize French citizens for access to employment, housing and social benefits.
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