French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin defended the need to “systematically” deport any foreign citizen who may be considered a danger. “The line of stability is very clear. The recognition of the entire national territory of all the dangerous, the systematic withdrawal of the residence permit for these foreigners and the systematic expulsion of any foreigner (… ) is considered dangerous by the intelligence services,” said Darmanin at a press conference.
Last Friday, a high school teacher, Dominique Bernard, was stabbed to death by a former student of Chechen origin in Arras, Pas-de-Calais. Darmanin also announced that he received permission from the president, Emmanuel Macron, to continue talks with the Russian authorities – very limited since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine – to “deport from their country of origin the citizens of Russia that is in the files.”.
There are “about 60 cases with Russian nationality in the S files,” Darmanin explained. “About 40 are in prison or have limited freedom, so 20 can be deported if we negotiate with the Russian authorities,” he said. “I will send the names to the authorities in a few hours so that we can proceed with the expulsion,” he explained. The minister recalled that since 2017 “more than 800 radicalized foreigners” have been expelled from France.
Darmanin also mentioned the many acts of “anti-Semitism” recently found in France and revealed that there are 189 according to the count of the Ministry of the Interior. “189 anti-Semitic acts have been recorded since last Saturday and there have been 2,449 complaints on the Pharos digital platform for the advocacy of terrorism or anti-Semitic speeches on the Internet,” explained Darmanin.
