personal political choice. you were a french bureaucrat, then you went to brussels to run an eu agency, then you decided to enter partisan politics not very long ago, and you joined the national rally party. what was it about marine le pen s party that attracted you? well, in fact, as the former executive director of frontex, the european border and coastguard agency, i realised that at some point brussels and especially the european commission didn t want to properly control the external borders of the european union, so we had to face and we still have to face massive illegal immigration flows. and what i realised that, officially, my mandate, my mission was officially to create a european corps of border and coastguard with uniforms and weapons to support european member states, to support them in protecting the external borders against illegal migration but also criminality. and the european commissioner at that time, madamejohansson, in charge of migration and just
every member state is free to decide on its own. and this is our political line. what we don t want, that the european commission decides on behalf of member states. and this is exactly what s going to happen. but with respect, france hasjust signed a migration pact alongside all the other members of the eu. that s signed and sealed. it s too late for you to stop that. yeah. but what is extremely interesting is that two days after this pact on asylum and migration was adopted, 15 member states sent a letter. so, ministers, 15 ministers sent a letter to the european commission asking, in fact, to focus now on combating illegal migration upstream, so before migrants arrive in europe, and especially with the proposal that the people in need of international protection, so let s say refugees or asylum seekers, should be allowed to lodge an asylum application in consulates abroad. so meaning, and this is exactly what my political party proposes, that people in need of internationa
fabrice leggeri. fabrice leggeri in paris, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for the invitation. it s great to have you on the show. let s start with your own personal political choice. you were a french bureaucrat, then you went to brussels to run an eu agency, then you decided to enter partisan politics not very long ago, and you joined the national rally party. what was it about marine le pen s party that attracted you? well, in fact, as the former executive director of frontex, the european border and coastguard agency, i realised that at some point brussels and especially the european commission didn t want to properly control the external borders of the european union, so we had to face and we still have to face massive illegal immigration flows. and what i realised that, officially, my mandate, my mission was officially to create a european corps of border and coastguard with uniforms and weapons to support european member states, to support them in protecting the e
it s great to have you on the show. let s start with your own personal political choice. you were a french bureaucrat, then you went to brussels to run an eu agency, then you decided to enter partisan politics not very long ago, and you joined the national rally party. what was it about marine le pen s party that attracted you? well, in fact, as the former executive director of frontex, the european border and coastguard agency, i realised that at some point brussels and especially the european commission didn t want to properly control the external borders of the european union, so we had to face and we still have to face massive illegal immigration flows. and what i realised that, officially, my mandate, my mission was officially to create a european corps of border and coastguard with uniforms and weapons to support european member states, to support them in protecting the external borders against illegal migration but also criminality. and the european commissioner
call them the rules have become much more stringent than they were in two thousand and fifteen she hasn t been out there you know giving speeches about it hasn t drawn a lot of attention to it but it is today much more difficult as a refugee to get asylum in germany than it was in two thousand and fifteen so i think that this is a another step that you know at least superficially appears to you know tight tighten the rules a bit but in substance it certainly is not a major departure from her previous policies and i don t think that she s dehumanizing europe at all i think that you know there is a practicality issue and i think that you know this is what sort of the mainstream german looks at the situation and thinks well you know yes we we know need to provide people asylum we want to help but there s sort of limits to what we can do and this is sort of the tension in this debate and has been from the beginning thank you for those coming to bring you in just a moment because you were t