One week after presidential hopeful Éric Zemmour pledged to establish a ministry for ‘remigration’ that would facilitate and oversee the repatriation of “unwanted foreigners,” multiple opinion polls have revealed the vast majority of French citizens support the proposal and the objectives outlined.
The first survey, carried out by the polling and market research firm IFOP for Sud Radio, found that two-thirds of the French population support a policy that, if enacted, would see the ‘remigration’ of illegal, delinquent, and criminal foreigners, as well as those who’ve been classified as threats to the country’s security, the Paris-based Le Figaro reports.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, supporters of Zemmour’s newly created Reconquête party were most likely back a ‘remigration’ policy, at 97%. Meanwhile—and despite the fact that Valérie Pécresse and Marine Le Pen have both condemned the proposal—85% of Les Républicains (LR) and 80% of Rassemblement National (RN) voters support Zemmour’s proposed course of action.
Unexpectedly, among voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI), 40% supported the idea, while 52% of Parti Socialiste (PS) voters and 60% of those who support Macron’s La République En Marche (LREM) felt the same way.
Touching on the numbers in an interview segment with Sud Radio last Friday, Zemmour stated: “Two-thirds of French people approve the word “remigration” and what I put in it… Once again, as with the ‘great replacement,’ Madame Le Pen finds herself on the side of the left and even the La France Insoumise left.”
The IFOP poll’s findings were more or less replicated in a second opinion survey—this time conducted by the institute OpinionWay for Valeurs Actualles—which found that 55% of the public supported the creation of a ministry that would manage the repatriation of those living illegally in the country, delinquents, criminals, and individuals deemed to be security threats.
Once again, supporters of Zemmour were most likely to favor the establishment of a Ministry of Remigration, at 93%. Meanwhile, 76% and 61% of Marine Le Pen and Valérie Pécresse supporters, respectively, felt the same way. Additionally, as was the case in the first poll, support for such a ministry was moderately high on the political left, with 34% of Les Verts (The Greens) and La France Insoumise (LFI) supporters agreeing with Zemmour’s proposal.
The second poll also confirmed that the proposal is popular among Macron supporters, with 48% of self-identified LREM voters favoring the creation of the ministry.
“The fact that 48% of Emmanuel Macron’s electorate is in favor of the creation of a ministry of remigration was not intuitively expected,” said Bruno Jeanbart, vice president of OpinionWay, adding: “This proves that on thems concerning sovereignty, a consensus has emerged in the opinion, now demanding in its majority a policy of firmness,” he added.
Days ago, during an interview with the newspaper Ouest France, Jean-Yves Camus, a French political scientist who specializes in European nationalist movements, explained the concept of remigration.
“The idea is as follows. It must be borne in mind that the concept of remigration is the logical consequence of the concept of great replacement. They are intimately linked. The concept of the great replacement explains to us that the “native French” are now a minority on their own territory, in their own country.”
“Remigration is the act of ‘re-migrating’. That is to say, you have migrated to come to France and you re-emigrate when you leave for ‘your’ country. The problem is that obviously for many people, it is not or no longer their country.”
