Will French Voters Buy into Immigrant Free Movement?

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, lay roses on the gravesites of former President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, April 24, 2018. (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser / Arlington National Cemetery / released)

Emmanuel Macron is facing the backlash of French citizens who are tired of the immigrant wave thrust upon them by their globalist elite class. Bill Wirtz explains in The American Conservative (abridged):

It’s election season in France, and Macron faces stark opposition at home, with Le Pen, the hard left, and the Yellow Vests doing everything they can to derail him. If his party fails this test at the end of the month, it could be an indicator of how the ballots will turn out.

It’s unlikely that voters will buy Macron’s change of mind on free movement. After all, they have more consistently anti-immigration alternatives to choose from.

The Yellow Vests are themselves aligning with different movements. The latest news out of France is that Yellow Vest leader Jean-François Barnaba, who created the “Jaunes et citoyens” (“Yellow and citizens”) list, is allying with Marine Le Pen’s former right-hand man Florian Philippot. Philippot leads “Les Patriotes,” which argues for an exit from the European Union and an abandonment of the euro. As they see it, decreasing purchasing power and pressure on wages is due to rising levels of immigrants.

Macron is likely to face opposition from within his own party and from other European leaders who have made defense of free movement a talking point for years.