The French president Emmanuel Macron is “keeping his endgame under wraps” as he takes advantage of the public’s opinion of Paris having to deal with the migrant crisis, a prominent member of the country’s green party claimed.
David Cormand, the national secretary of France’s Europe Ecologie Les Verts (EELV) green party, said: “Mr Macron thinks he can do what he wants because he knows that the French have grown weary of the migrant crisis and of having to shoulder so much of the burden alone.
“Mr Macron is keeping his endgame under wraps… He’s playing a cynical game by telling people that his new policy is both efficient and humane when it clearly isn’t.”
Mr Cormand went on to denounce Mr Macron’s increasingly “violent” attitude towards migrants and refugees.
The young president’s new immigration law poses a serious threat to “national cohesion” and to the country’s “fundamental values”, he warned.
France is not a country where anyone who is not in dire need or danger is forced out, he continued.
Mr Macron’s promise to speed up processing asylum requests while ensuring failed asylum seekers and economic migrants are dealt with more firmly has sparked outrage among aid agencies and activists, who have accused the president of inhumanity.
In an attempt to defend the new laws, Mr Macron told a conference in Rome last week: “Nothing in the policy being pursued by the government calls the right of asylum into question, but asylum does not mean welcoming people indiscriminately.”
The president has also pledged to clamp down on illegal immigration in the northern port town of Calais, the epicentre of the migrant crisis.
His government has asked the UK to contribute more financially to bolstering security there, and to take in more Britain-bound child refugees.
France has also asked for a renegotiation of the 2003 border agreement with Britain.
Known as the Le Touquet accord, the deal keeps border checks – and therefore scores of UK-bound migrants – on the French side of the Channel.
The two allies are to sign a new immigration treaty on Thursday that will “complement” but not replace the border deal, French officials said.
In addition, Britain has agreed to paying some £45million for extra security measures in Calais, the main gateway into Britain.
Mr Macron remains a divisive figure in France.
An Ipsos poll published on Wednesday showed that while 40 per cent of French people approve of the young president’s actions, 49 per cent disapprove.
A total of 1,050 were interviewed by Ipsos pollsters between January 12-13.