A few days after Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with the party leaders, the second most important figure in the state after the President of the Republic, spoke in the columns of Le Parisien, bluntly calling for constitutional reform in terms of immigration.
“Without constitutional reform, we will be able to move forward, but it is impossible for asylum applications to be made outside French territory, to establish quotas or to modify the management of family reunification”, declared Gérard Larcher who said he was in favor to hold a referendum on the matter.
The elected representative of the Les Républicains party notably warned: “We are opening the door to the far right if we still deceive the French on this subject”. Above all, the senator wanted to be critical of the successive consultations undertaken by Emmanuel Macron since the start of his first term, from the “great debate” to the meetings of the Head of State with the political parties, including “the conference citizen on the climate or the national council of the refoundation”.
“Be careful that once again these ‘Saint-Denis meetings’ do not lead to anything,” he warned, referring to a “communication exercise” in the face of the “demand for results” from voters. “If it is only gesticulation, we will all pay dearly for it collectively. Because the French no longer trust us. Gérard Larcher also pushed the President of the Republic to seize the reform of decentralization or to “save money” during the next budget with the objective of a “return to balance”.
Regarding the next presidential election, the senator affirmed that “the macronist right no longer exists” at the end of the two terms of Emmanuel Macron who “will not be able to represent himself”. “Laurent Wauquiez has the qualities to be our candidate, others have them too”, he also answered following a question on the “natural candidate of the right”.