The document Farage and Bardella signed is only binding if the two parties come to power, and it says France will “will ordinarily accept” migrants intercepted in the Channel — potentially leaving wiggle room for Paris to reject them in some cases. Farage called the line “legalese” at a press conference alongside Bardella.
“As Australia proved in 2012, once you provide no incentive to pay a trafficker money to be taken across a stretch of water, in very very short order, the business model will be broken,” Farage said.
But Farage was not asked about the fact that the phrase does not even appear in the French version of the agreement. A National Rally official, granted anonymity to discuss the agreement’s finer points, said the French translation is the “final” version of the agreement.
The memorandum in both languages says the French will be responsible for deporting migrants to their countries of origin, and that the costs of policing operations will be assessed later. It adds that that France will do “its upmost” to stop departures.
“If France gains control of its borders there will be no departures [from French shores],” Bardella said in a speech at the conference. “If we end up doing pushbacks, it would be a failure of our government, it would mean that we have let dozens of thousands of people enter France illegally,” he added.
And the National Rally has long vowed to submit its immigration plans to a referendum in France, which is a lengthy and uncertain process that could get derailed even Bardella’s mentor, Marine Le Pen, wins the presidential election next year. Polls have consistently showed she is the front-runner.