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Since France’s new prime minister Michel Barnier appointed his cabinet last week, one of his picks has sparked particular controversy — his fellow conservative interior minister, Bruno Retailleau.
The 64-year-old veteran senator from Barnier’s Les Républicains party has immediately staked out territory as the premier’s hard man on incendiary topics such as immigration and crime.
Proclaiming that immigration “was not an opportunity for France”, Retailleau in recent days criticised multiculturalism and suggested that newcomers clashed with the country’s “Judeo-Christian history”. He then provoked further outrage by arguing that French laws and the separation of powers were “not sacrosanct” and should be changed when they failed to keep the public safe.
It is no accident that Barnier has selected such a rightwing voice in his minority government. If it is to survive in the face of a largely hostile parliament, the cabinet will have to keep far-right leader Marine Le Pen happy. Following snap elections called over the summer by president Emmanuel Macron, Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) emerged as the single-largest party which could bring down the government if it threw its weight behind a no-confidence vote with the rest of the opposition.
Le Pen has already put Barnier on notice that his government was “under surveillance” and demanded a new immigration law to further toughen rules even after the government passed one last December.
“Retailleau is Barnier’s insurance policy,” said a person in the minister’s entourage. “His presence makes it harder for the RN to censure the government right away.”
In an awkward power-sharing arrangement, Barnier’s cabinet is filled with people from his conservative LR party — one of the smallest in the assembly with only 47 seats — and Macron’s much-weakened centrists. Although Le Pen’s party remains in opposition, it has tacitly backed Barnier’s government.
The RN is satisfied for now, especially as the ideas Retailleau has laid out to curb immigration and cut crime mirror what Le Pen has proposed. “With Bruno Retailleau, we have the impression that he is a spokesman for the RN,” quipped Laure Lavalette, an MP from the RN. “He has understood what the French public wants on immigration . . . If he has the political will to change things, that’s great since we’ll have less to do when we take power.”
Retailleau has vowed to restore “order” on crime and immigration by taking a harder line on asylum claims, imposing longer prison sentences, and doing more to curb drugs and human trafficking. A key priority would also be deporting more people who come illegally back to their home countries — something promised by the previous interior minister, Gérald Darmanin. Retailleau however is going further by saying removals should be done to other countries if needed.
“My job is to reduce illegal immigration, as well as legal immigration,” Retailleau told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday. “We need to take back control of migration policies . . . It is untenable. If the number of arrivals is too high, how can we integrate them properly?”
The rightward shift on immigration in France comes as other European countries are seeking to curb arrivals in response to hardening public opinion and the rise of far-right parties. Germany recently began ad hoc border checks. Italy has made deals with Tunisia to slow the flows of migrants there.
But like other interior ministers before him, Retailleau is likely to struggle because of barriers in both the French constitution and EU law, particularly on how asylum claims and removals are handled. Deporting people who break the law or arrive illegally is often difficult because it requires the consent of their country of origin, which can come slowly or not at all.
Barnier, who has in the past likened EU borders to “sieves”, has remained somewhat ambiguous on whether he wants to go as far as Retailleau does. In a speech before parliament on Tuesday to outline his agenda, Barnier used similar language to Retailleau, but did not commit to proposing a new law on immigration as his minister has urged. “We want to better control our borders,” said Barnier.
A devout Catholic who hails from the Vendée region, Retailleau has been a fixture in rightwing politics for decades. He worked on François Fillon’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2017 that promoted smaller government, fiscal discipline, and opposition to gay marriage.
He has long been a ferocious critic of Macron’s brand of pragmatic centrism, opposing his party teaming up with the president’s camp after 2022 legislative elections. But once Macron made the surprise pick of Barnier for premier in August, Retailleau and other LR cadres made a U-turn to join forces with their one-time opponents.
The shift contrasts with another U-turn made in June by Eric Ciotti, who then headed the LR party, to break with them and ally with the RN.
Another calculation lies behind the LR strategy on immigration and crime, said Julien Aubert, a former conservative MP and longtime ally of Retailleau. “Retailleau wants to show voters that a traditional governing party can re-establish order, without putting the country into the hands of the RN,” he said.
Renaud Labaye, the secretary-general of the RN parliamentary group, said that the party would monitor whether the government delivered, and downplayed the idea that Retailleau’s presence would prevent them from a censure motion. Le Pen has laid out red lines that conditioned the RN’s support, including a new immigration law.
“It’s up to us to decide how long the Barnier government survives,” said Labaye. “If we have to, we will vote him out.”
