French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told Luce on Tuesday that it was “very important” for people of Portuguese descent to vote in the second round of the legislature, stressing that the National Union wants to “divide the French” by nationality.
Speaking to Lousa on the sidelines of a campaign event in central Paris, Gabriel Attal was asked whether he thought Portuguese residents in France should vote in Sunday’s elections.
“Of course, it is very important that all French people come out to vote,” replied the head of the French executive.
Gabriel Attal warned that the National Union (Rally National (RN) in French) “wants to divide the French among themselves.”
“So if you are a Frenchman of another nationality – and this concerns three million 500 thousand French people because they have different origins and family histories – for the National Union this means that you are worth less than others,” he said, stressing that “it is very important that all French people vote.”
Asked whether he believed the National Union project could jeopardise bilateral relations between France and Portugal, Attal replied: “In any case, we know that we have a deeply European project that fights for a strong Europe, because that is also in the interests of the French.”
“On the other hand, we have the National Union, which, from what we see, is proposing a gradual exit from Europe,” he said, accusing the party of wanting to “stop paying the French contribution to the European budget” and “stop paying France’s contribution to the European budget while respecting the rules of the Europeans.”
“This will, of course, have a very strong impact on our relations with other European countries,” he warned.
The National Union states in its platform that French people with dual nationality cannot access certain positions in the civil service. The party believes that there will be “very few jobs” reserved for “extremely sensitive” sectors of the state, such as diplomacy, security or defense.
During this campaign rally at the Convention Market in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, Gabriel Attal crossed paths with Lucia Fernandes, a Portuguese citizen who came to France in 1971 and asked him not to allow any party to enter government again.
“I beg you. I applied for citizenship only a year ago, they are pushing me from side to side. It’s terrible, they don’t accept my countries… And now I think it will only get worse,” he said.
Lucia Fernandez explained to Lusa that until now she had never applied for French citizenship because she felt “free in France” and never thought it would change anything.
“But lately I started to see that things were getting more complicated and I wanted to ask,” she said, expressing “very concern” about the National Union project because she believed it could “endanger” not only the Portuguese but “all of Europe.”
The far-right National Union (RN, from the French original “National Rally”) party won 33% of the vote on Sunday, compared to about 28% for the left-wing Popular Front and 21% for President Emmanuel Macron’s camp.
The second round of French legislative elections will take place next Sunday, the 7th.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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