(Bloomberg) -- Bernard Cazeneuve, a former French Socialist prime minister who came close to being reappointed to the role this summer, warned against using migration as a weapon as the government mulls more legislation to curb it.
“When this issue is weaponized for political reasons, it isn’t solved with efficient solutions,” he said at the Future Resilience Forum in London on Tuesday. “The only right path is to be balanced.”
French President Emmanuel Macron passed a deeply divisive immigration bill earlier this year that sought to toughen the country’s stance. While its decrees haven’t been fully implemented yet, the new government is considering another one in 2025.
This is a key demand of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, whose ability to topple the minority government by backing a no-confidence motion in parliament along with an alliance of left-wing parties is keeping pressure on new Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
Cazeneuve was speaking ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels later this week. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has convened counterparts including Poland’s Donald Tusk to discuss the topic informally on the sidelines of the summit on Thursday to push for tougher migration measures.
Macron took weeks to choose a new prime minister after his June decision to call a snap legislative vote following defeat by the far right in European elections delivered a divided National Assembly with no group able to form a majority to govern.
In the end, he decided against picking Cazeneuve, who served in the role under Socialist former President Francois Hollande and had been in the running until late in the race. Instead, he opted for seasoned conservative Republican Michel Barnier, a choice acceptable to Le Pen.
The former EU Brexit negotiator put forward Republican Senator Bruno Retailleau as interior minister. Retailleau has said that “immigration isn’t an opportunity.”
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