2023-09-23 19:06:00
On the occasion of his visit to Marseille, Pope Francis castigated the “indifference” reserved for migrants. A speech that resonates in the French political debate, as the government line is intended to be severe on this subject. The left has also accused Emmanuel Macron of hypocrisy, who chose to be present at the mass that the sovereign pontiff is giving this Saturday, September 23 at the Vélodrome stadium.
If the head of the Catholic Church assured that he would go to Marseille, “but not to France”, he was received by the president and his wife, Brigitte Macron. Saturday morning, at the Pharo Palace, he warned, in his frail voice, the French and European political class on the subject. Migrants “who risk their lives at sea do not invade”, they “must not be considered as a burden”, he affirmed, pleading for “a large number of legal and regular entries” when the trend is at the restriction.
For him, those who speak of an “invasion” only fuel “fear” and he calls for “European responsibility”. He took part in a lively debate in France and defends the “integration” of foreigners rather than the “assimilation” dear to the right.
The Élysée defends its record
What does Emmanuel Macron think, whose line on this explosive theme may have fluctuated since his arrival at the Élysée in 2017? He who advocated a “duty of European solidarity” with Italy in the face of the influx of migrants on the island of Lampedusa, but who also promised to “significantly reduce immigration”?
Next to the president, his Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, responsible for the very complex gestation of a law on immigration which is currently struggling to bring together a parliamentary majority, is also listening. France “will not welcome migrants” from Lampedusa, he warned again at the start of the week.
READ ALSO “Migrating should be a free choice”: Francis, the Pope Prophet of LampedusaAfter this papal speech, at the close of the Mediterranean Meetings bringing together bishops and young people in France’s second city, the president and the sovereign pontiff locked themselves away for their fourth tête-à-tête in six years, the first outside the Vatican. They discuss the international situation but also, briefly, the migration issue. “France has nothing to be ashamed of, it is a country of welcome and integration,” defends the Élysée.
A pope too political for the right
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron then attended the giant mass celebrated by “papa Francesco” at the Vélodrome stadium, the home of Olympique de Marseille – the head of state’s favorite club. A presidential decision which caused controversy, with the left denouncing an attack on secularism.
“The President of the Republic has nothing to do there […], I think he’s hitting the nail on the head,” said the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Saturday from Marseille where he was participating in the united march against police violence. Emmanuel Macron “behaves in a particularly hypocritical manner because it is he who puts these policies in place” on immigration, he continued, while once again welcoming the “useful” role of the Pope in denouncing “barbarism against migrants”.
READ ALSO In Marseille, the very political visit of Pope FrancisOn the right, and especially on the far right, if we are not offended by the presence of Emmanuel Macron at mass, we minimize, or even deplore, the Pope’s speech on migrants. The Republicans are demanding a referendum to change the Constitution in order to deviate from European rules. “So that the French can finally decide who can enter France or not, without the courts condemning us to helplessness,” explained the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau on X (ex-Twitter).
“I disagree with Pope Francis, I find that Pope Francis does not have to do politics and that he does too much,” Marion Maréchal, the head of the list of Reconquest!, Eric Zemmour’s party, for the European elections.
The Pope is against active assistance in dying
In his speech on Saturday morning, the sovereign pontiff included another theme which could be interpreted as a warning to Emmanuel Macron: that of the end of life. He criticized the “falsely worthy perspective of a gentle death, in reality saltier than the waters of the sea”, while the government is preparing to unveil its bill on this subject, which could go so far as to authorize “active assistance in dying”.
READ ALSO Between Pope Francis and France, it’s “I love you, me neither” If this theme was discussed in their tête-à-tête, the president stuck to the “calendar” and the “methodology” of a text expected “in the coming weeks”, assured those around him. It was theoretically supposed to be presented before the pope’s arrival, but was postponed.
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