At the French border city of Menton, François-Xavier Bellamy has decided to focus his campaign for the EU elections on immigration. On Friday, the candidate met with police at the French border city Menton near Italy - a flashpoint of the migration debate between both countries.
ADVERTISEMENTWith less than two months to go before the European elections, the French right-wing candidate Francois-Xavier Bellamy wants to show he is tough on immigration.
On Friday, the member of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) chose a symbolic place to meet with police: the French border city of Menton near Italy - a flashpoint of the migration debate which has sparked tensions between both countries.
Bellamy’s goal: to meet with French border police and to reaffirm his party’s opposition to the recently approved EU Migration Pact - a landmark reform tightening the bloc’s immigration rules deemed too lax by the French conservatives.
“We are opposed to the majority of this Migration Pact because we are here at a border where we can see the helplessness of our countries when it comes to the migration crisis," the MEP told Euronews.
"The asylum and migration pact does not allow us to provide a solution to better protect our borders.”
The pact aims to speed up the asylum process and simplify the return of irregular migrants to their home countries.
It will require member states to share responsibility for asylum seekers, either by taking in more migrants or by providing extra funding.
The most controversial part of the package involves establishing border facilities in the EU to host asylum seekers and screen and quickly send back applicants found not to be ineligible.
NGOs have criticised the pact as violating human rights.
In the Roya Valley, an hour away from Menton, this activist for the NGO Roya Citoyenne, known for sheltering migrants who have crossed the border, has slammed both the new pact and Bellamy’s stance on immigration.
"It's going to make their lives a lot harder. You can't stop a flow of desperate people like that. One way or another, they’ll either find a way through or die trying," Gibi Bonnet, member of the NGO Roya Citoyenne, said.
Last year, the NGO said it sheltered 80 migrants mainly coming from Ivory Coast, Guinea and Eritrea.
According to French local authorities, 44,000 arrests were made in 2023 at this border crossing, with some migrants having been arrested multiple times.