French PM says France to 'take back control' on migration

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says France needs to “take back control” of migration, as part of a carefully controlled government push to listen to voters’ worries over growing immigration that risks playing into the hands of the far-right.

Philippe said in a speech Wednesday that “it’s about sovereignty. We have to take back control of our migration policy,” but that a new approach on immigration offers a “fair balance between rights and obligations.”

He said he wanted to fix quotas on certain aspects of migration, without elaborating.

The centrist government’s shift to the right has provoked ire from the left of the Republic on the Move party, as President Emmanuel Macron has been accused of cynically trying to fend off the appeal of the far right ahead of 2020’s municipal elections.