The former head of the EU’s border security force Frontex has thrown in his lot with Marine Le Pen by announcing himself as a candidate for the right-wing Rassemblement National (RN). His involvement in the upcoming European elections will focus further attention on the inability of European and French elites to rein in migration.
Fabrice Leggeri—who served as head of Frontex as recently as 2022—is almost certain to take a seat in the next European Parliament after being placed third on the RN’s candidates list. Current polls suggest the nationalist party is on course to take first place with 30% of the national vote in June’s election.
A veteran diplomat and security expert, Leggeri earned a reputation for clashing with NGOs and the notoriously left-wing EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson during his time at Frontex. He left the role in 2022 after an ambiguous corruption scandal. Many at the time linked Leggeri’s resignation to his support of “pushback operations” directed at migrants entering Europe illegally from Turkey. This made him the target of criticism from left-wing MEPs within the European Parliament.
Leggeri’s endorsement is a PR coup for Le Pen and the up-and-coming party president Jordan Bardella, as the party is expected to achieve its largest delegation of MEPs this year—despite the emergence of the rival Reconquête party led by Éric Zemmour.
Upon announcing for RN, Leggeri was quick to praise the nationalists as having “concrete plans” to stop the migratory flows currently reshaping the Continent’s demographics. Going on to describe the attitude of the European Commission towards “migratory overload,” Leggeri claimed, “Eurocrats do not consider [migration] as a problem, but rather as a project: I can testify to this.”
Leggeri’s new party boss Marine Le Pen was quick to highlight his candidacy, announcing that he would tell the French public “what is happening from the inside” when it comes to the EU’s management of border control.
Migration is expected to be a key issue for European voters ahead of a busy election cycle this June, as nationalist parties expect to manoeuvre into positions of power within the European Parliament—with RN regarded by many as the defining political component of the Identity and Democracy nationalist faction.
Frontex—often referred to as being kept intentionally toothless by EU observers—recorded a record number of illegal crossings in the Mediterranean last year. Brussels has struggled to restore some order to its migration policy.
