Pécresse makes anti-immigrant play to fend off far right

The rightwing French presi-dential candidate Valérie Pécresse vowed to crack down on immigration as she held her first big rally last Sunday amid competition from the growing far right and defections from her party to the centrist leader Emmanuel Macron.

- Angelique Chrisafis

“There is no sovereignty without borders,” Pécresse said on stage in Paris as more than 6,000 people waved French flags in support of the first female presidential candidate for Les Républicains, the traditional rightwing party of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Pécresse, who on a recent trip to Greek migrant camps said she was not against “barbed wire” to keep migrants out of Europe, told the rally she would support the building of barriers and “even walls” on the edge of Europe if the countries on the frontline wanted it. It was a clear reference to her rival, the controversial, far-right TV pundit Éric Zemmour, who last week suggested building a Donald Trump-style anti-immigration “wall” around the edges of the EU.

A former budget minister under Sarkozy, Pécresse, 54, wants to be seen as the only feasible rival to Macron ahead of the April election. But she faces the serious challenge of whether she can make it to the second round run off. The far right has risen in force to represent about 30% of the vote in current polls, and is split between two candidates, Marine Le Pen, running for the third time, and the newcomer Zemmour. Both are hovering around the same score as Pécresse in the polls.