Unrest is growing in Macron’s febrile France

Across Europe the numbers are soaring. In Britain, net migration figures are expected to near one million when the figures are released later this month; in Germany, there have been 101,981 asylum applications so far this year, an increase of 78 per cent on the same period in 2022.  

2022 was a record year in France with the arrival of nearly half a million legal migrants. This is on top of those who are in the country illegally. According to the MP for Nice, Eric Ciotti, president of the centre-right Republican party, there could be as many as one million in this category. 

The crisis in France has become so grave that respected politicians are warning of looming disaster. In a television interview on Thursday morning, Bruno Retailleau, the Senate leader of the Republicans, expressed his fear for the future. Lamenting the government’s reluctance to tackle what he described as the ‘migratory chaos’, Retailleau said this inertia could ‘lead to civil war’.