Macron draws fire from the Left for standing firm at the gates of France

Everyone interested in politics knows the old adage, “Never waste a good crisis”. The Left in France has certainly wasted no time in turning the President’s words against him in the aftermath of this week’s events in Afghanistan. 

If anything, they have substituted “tragedy” for “crisis,” denouncing Macron’s carefully chosen remarks on the wave of Afghan migrants expected in the months and years ahead as “sordid,” “shameful” and “disgraceful”. 

This is what Macron actually said during an interview with the news channel BFMTV on Tuesday night:

“The destabilisation of Afghanistan will lead in all likelihood to an increase in the flow of irregular migration to Europe. As I have said, France is doing, and will continue to do, its duty to protect those who are in greatest danger. We will participate fully in an organised and just international effort. 

“But in the days ahead, Afghanistan will continue to need its best and brightest, and Europe on its own will not be able to assume the consequences of the current situation.  We must plan and protect ourselves in the face of an irregular migratory flow that endangers not only those involved but fuels trafficking of every kind.” 

He later added, when asked who would actually be admitted, that France stood ready to help those who had worked with its forces and officials in Afghanistan down the years, as well as activists, artists and journalists targeted because of their work. A pretty full list.

“We will help them as it is the honour of France to be side-by-side with those who share our values”. 

It is hard to imagine a more measured response. He could, I suppose, have said, “Come one, come all, France’s doors are open!” But I doubt even that would have satisfied his detractors. 

Here is just a selection of the brickbats thrown at him within hours of his remarks: 

Rémi Féraud, first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) in Paris: “This is far from the humanist promise of 2017. It is worthy of a bad, right-wing President.” 

Soclalist Senator Laurence Rossignol: “What cynicism! Shameful.” 

Olivier Faure, a leading candidate for the PS nomination: “We must protect all those who now fall under the right of asylum.” 

But it gets worse: 

Yannick Jadot, an MEP for the Greens, also hoping to stand again Macron next year: “I was dumbfounded to listen to the President declare that the women, men and children who are fleeing the Hell of the Taliban are first and foremost a threat – ‘irregular migrants’ – rather than victims and potential refugees.”

Jadot’s party colleague, the mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle, said simply, “Macron shames France.” 

From the Far Left, Adrien Quatennens, a deputy from Lille for the France Unbowed party, said that Macron had “diminished” the good name of France, while his colleagues from the Paris banlieues, Clémentine Autain and Eric Coquerel, tweeted, “What a sordid response!”. 

Les Echos, the liberal financial daily now owned by the luxury goods brand LVMH, was in no doubt that it was now open season on Macron. His remarks, said the paper, had “scandalised the Left”. 

Macron was obviously taken aback by the reaction to his interview. Not unreasonably, he claimed that his remarks had been “hi-jacked,” as if what he had said was that “irregular” migrants were about to flood into France and had to be stopped. It was left to the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, to point out that France would continue to open its doors to “those threatened by the Islamist horror.” 

What did the Left expect the President to say? Like Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel, Macron was not consulted by President Biden before announcing his plan to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan. What happened next, in the wake of the overnight abandonment of the vast Bagram airbase, was not of Europe’s doing and, at least in terms of timing, would have been opposed by the governments of Britain and the EU. They were stunned by the abrupt and all-encompassing nature of the US pullout, which was bound to lead to a surge of Afghan migrants heading west.

Back in 2017, Macron’s campaign for the presidency was predicated on the Blairite model of being “neither Left nor Right”. It is no secret, however, that over the last three years, as his economic reform programme met with widespread street protests and was then placed in limbo by the Covid pandemic, he has tacked steadily to the right. 

It is in realisation of this that the Left has piled in on the Afghan question. They will be aware that Macron, in pursuit of a second term, is not going to do a Merkel and invite half a million Afghans to come to France. They will know that he hopes to limit the influx and to work with the EU in establishing a system in which the load is shared across all 27 member states. 

But the Left will also know that, in portraying Macron as an anti-immigrant version of Scrooge, they could actually be doing him a favour. France’s white vote is fundamentally unsympathetic to migration, and by characterising the President as in line with this tendency, they could end up hoist by their own petard. 

On the centre-right, Les Républicains also have to be careful. Laurent Wauquiez, a former leader of the party who, however forlornly, still hopes to be President, put out a statement in which he said that France did not have the means to support another wave of migration. Xavier Bertrand, a front-runner for the nomination, warned of the dangers of the new wave to come, while the head of the party in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, called for a “firm” response. 

They should be careful what they wish for. 

Arguably, if Macron is perceived to stand tough, he will benefit at both ends of the political spectrum. It is noticeable that Marine Le Pen, leader of the Far-Right National Rally, who rarely misses a chance to decry Macron and all his works, has so far said little on the Afghan crisis beyond noting that it exposed France to the risk of further Islamist attacks and an increased flow of immigrants. 

In reputational terms, Macron will be frustrated by the portrayal of him on social media as “Emmanuel Le Pen”. It would probably be fairer to see him as a nightclub bouncer, allowing in only those on his list or who are properly attired and ready to stand in line without causing trouble. 

While more liberal on the issue of migration and asylum-seekers than the average voter, he is also a realist, who understands the strain on the system imposed by large numbers of new arrivals as well as the need to keep faith with what is still a clear majority of the electorate. One thing is certain: whatever procedures are introduced, a surge in the number of Afghan migrants is inevitable, not only in France but across Europe. How Macron deals with the influx could yet join his handling of the pandemic as a key determinant in who gets to take the salute at next year’s Bastille Day celebrations.