French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in an uphill battle to stay in office.
Here he campaigns on immigration. From the BBC:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said there are too many foreigners in France and the system for integrating them is “working worse and worse”.
In a TV debate, Mr Sarkozy defended his plan to almost halve the number of new arrivals if re-elected next month.
Mr Sarkozy is trailing in the opinion polls behind the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande.
He is also competing for conservative voters with the far-right National Front party led by Marine le Pen.
The president said while immigration could be a boon for France, it needed to be controlled more tightly through tougher qualification rules for residency.
Wants to cut the number of immigrants arriving to nearly one half:
He has said that if re-elected, he will reduce the number of immigrants to France from 180,000 a year to 100,000 and introduce tighter controls on access to welfare benefits.
As president, Mr Sarkozy has already pushed through tough new immigration rules, including the controversial deportation of Roma gypsies.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Francois Fillon caused dismay among Muslim and Jewish groups by suggesting the religious slaughter of animals was out of date.
The controversy started when a TV documentary said last month that all the abattoirs in Paris region only produced halal meat.
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Frankly, if the Socialist wins and immigration goes unabated it’s bye-bye France and French culture faster then its already leaving the world stage. Watch for it—election is April 22nd.
Imagine any politician, let alone a President, of the US calling for a near halving of the immigration numbers!