France has maxed out on migrants. It’s a message that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party has been pushing for years, but it’s one now endorsed by the government’s Justice Minister. In an interview with a newspaper at the weekend, Gérald Darmanin declared that the Republic has ‘reached the limits of our capacities for integration and assimilation’.

Darmanin believes that a three-year suspension of legal immigration is the answer, and in particular he wants a crackdown on the policy of family reunification. Introduced in 1976, the policy allowed migrants – mainly from North Africa – who came to France to work to also bring their family. ‘We must put an end to immigration as it exists today,’ said Darmanin.

A report last week estimated that there are more than a million illegal immigrants in France, many of whom have arrived from central Africa and war-torn countries of the Middle East. But it is legal immigration that has most unsettled the French this century.

As Macron’s presidency draws to a close, he has started to put his cronies into positions of power

Last year, more than 380,000 non-European nationals received their first residence permit in France, an increase of 40,000 on 2024. The figures have climbed steadily since Emmanuel Macron came to power, and that is one reason why Darmanin’s remarks carry little authority. He is a Macron loyalist who, before being appointed Justice Minister in 20204, served as the Interior Minister for four years.

Fans of Liverpool football club won’t forget Darmanin’s name in a hurry. In May 2022, he falsely accused them of causing the trouble at the Stade de France in Paris before the Champions League final. Television pictures showed that the young men running riot were clearly not Liverpool fans, nor indeed fans of any football club. They were locals from the estates surrounding the stadium. Last year, Darmanin admitted that it ‘was a mistake and a failure’ on his part to blame Liverpool supporters.

On the question of immigration, however, Darmanin is not wrong. France has lost control of its borders and the silent majority knows it. Last month, a poll revealed that 71 per cent of the country wants border controls reintroduced.

That won’t happen as long as Macron is president, and even after he leaves office next April it will be a challenge to beef up France’s borders. Darmanin acknowledged that the ‘Blob’ will fight tooth and nail to maintain the free movement into France of recent decades. ‘The constitution will have to be changed,’ said Darmanin, who said he supports holding a referendum on immigration.

He’s not the first to moot such an idea. Le Pen wants one, as so does Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the centre-right Republicans. Macron rejected the idea in 2023, and so did France’s Constitutional Council the following year because a referendum on immigration would be a ‘disproportionate infringement’ of the rights of legal migrants.

The Constitutional Court is heavily populated by unelected Socialists; its head is Richard Ferrrand, a close friend of Macron’s and, like the president, a former member of the Socialist party. The Socialists began their march through France’s institutions in May 1968. A decade later the Supreme Court overturned a government decree ending family reunification. They justified their decision on the grounds that the policy allowed immigrants ‘the right to lead a normal family life’.

As Macron’s presidency draws to a close, he has started to put his cronies into positions of power and influence – what the French call ‘la République des copains’ [‘The Republic of mates’]. There is Richard Ferrand at the Constitutional Council and Marc Guillaume, the new head of the Supreme Court. Macron has also appointed his friends to key jobs at the National Audit Office, the Bank of France and France Télévisions, the equivalent of the BBC.

Macron’s objective is clear: like most people, he believes his successor will come from the National Rally, either Le Pen or her number two, Jordan Bardella. This depends on whether she wins her appeal in July against political disqualification. By putting his people in place – centre-left globalists and progressives – Macron believes the National Rally will be powerless to implement any of their manifesto, particularly ending mass immigration.

Macron disagrees with Gerard Darmanin. There are no limits when it comes to free movement, hence why he’s presided over record levels of immigration. If Le Pen’s party does win power next year, that will be only half the battle won. Their toughest fight will await: against the Blob.