Angry after Thursday’s decision of the Constitutional Council to invalidate their referendum on immigration, leaders of the Republicans (LR) went on Friday April 12 to the Franco-Italian border in Menton to denounce “the concrete consequences” of this decision. “Our law makes the State powerless over illegal immigration,” said François-Xavier Bellamy, head of the European list, after visiting the Menton border post, alongside the head of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti.
The decision of the Constitutional Council, which rejected the shared initiative referendum (RIP) tabled a month ago by the right, was described as “catastrophic for the country” by the outgoing MEP. The president of LR went further, denouncing “with great anger” what he presented as “a real democratic scandal (…) which deprives the French of their ability to say whether they want more or less immigration.”
“Those who made this decision do not understand the extreme seriousness of the consequences that will weigh on the country,” he said indignantly, while six migrants were escorted to the Italian border by the police. He denounced a “legally dangerous decision, and only political”.
Invalidated on the merits
Alongside outgoing MEP Nadine Morano and former general Christophe Gomart, number three on the LR list, Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Ciotti then went to the Turbie tollbooth, between Menton and Nice, where the police controls were carried out at the borders. François-Xavier Bellamy called for “the French and European citizens to find their borders”, believing that “people who cross the border are dangerous” because, according to him, “exposed to Islamist radicalization”.
This referendum was invalidated in substance, and not in form, by the Constitutional Council, which judged that it partially included the elements introduced by LR in the “immigration” law and already censored in January by this same body.
Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and putative right-wing candidate for the Elysée, used on the announcement by the Constitutional Council constitutes “a new episode”.
The members of the Constitutional Council thus considered that the measures proposed by the right represent a “disproportionate attack” on the rights to social protection of foreigners in a legal situation.
