French presidential runner Pécresse to ‘power wash’ crime-hit areas

Right-wing French presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse has vowed to "power wash" the crime-ridden suburbs of France, echoing a controversial line from former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Published: 6 January 2022 15:27 CET

Valerie Pecresse on the campaign trail in France. Her 'tough-on-crime' rhetoric echoes that of former president Nicolas Sarkozy. (Photo by Pascal GUYOT / AFP)

French right-wing presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse promised Thursday to clean out crime-hit urban areas with a power hose as she sought to portray President Emmanuel Macron as soft on crime.

Reprising a controversial expression made famous by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, her political mentor, Pécresse vowed to deploy a power hose, known by the brand name Karcher in France.

“We need to get the Karcher out again because it has been stored away in the basement… for the last 10 years,” the Republicans party candidate told journalists in the southern town of Salon-de-Provence.

“We’re going to need to clean up these neighbourhoods that have become areas without laws and sometimes without France,” the head of the Paris region added.

“In my republic, there will not be areas where drug dealers have the upper hand.”

Security and immigration are among the leading concerns of voters ahead of presidential elections in April, behind worries about the cost of living and wages.

When asked if she could do better than the tough-talking Sarkozy during his 2007-2012 term in office, Pecresse replied: “I’m an Iron Lady. Ask people in my region.”

A new poll published on Wednesday evening by the Ifop-Fiducial survey group showed Macron extending his gains slightly over his challengers including Pecresse, as well as far-right rivals Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour.

It showed the 44-year-old centrist winning the first round, then beating Pecresse, his closest rival, by 55 percent to 45 percent in a second-round run-off vote.

Analysts warn that the election race remains highly uncertain, however, and Macron stirred up a major controversy on Tuesday evening after telling the Parisien newspaper that he wanted to “piss off” the unvaccinated with more restrictions.

The use of vulgar slang — which was seen as stigmatising the unvaccinated — was condemned by his opponents including Pecresse, who said it was “not the president’s job to divide the French people into good and bad people”.

Pecresse, who is bidding to be France’s first woman president, unveiled her campaign team this week, which included all her Republicans party rivals for the nomination.

The highest-ranking aides, including former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, were notable for being all male and white.

Member comments

Anonymous - 6 January 2022 at 17:54 CET

Is she courting the racist vote now?
1. Anonymous - 15 January 2022 at 21:57 CET
  
  Fighting crime amounts to racism?

Become a Member to leave a comment.

“I don’t believe in the model… which would involve finding third countries on the African continent or elsewhere where we’d send people who arrive on our soil illegally, who don’t come from these countries,” Macron said.

“We’re creating a geopolitics of cynicism which betrays our values and will build new dependencies, and which will prove completely ineffective,” he added in a wide-ranging speech on the future of the European Union at Paris’ Sorbonne University.

British MPs on Tuesday passed a law providing for undocumented asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and where they would stay if the claims succeed.

The law is a flagship policy for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which badly lags the opposition Labour party in the polls with an election expected within months.

Britain pays Paris to support policing of France’s northern coast, aimed at preventing migrants from setting off for perilous crossings in small boats.

Five people, including one child, were killed in an attempted crossing Tuesday, bringing the toll on the route so far this year to 15 – already higher than the 12 deaths in 2023.

But Macron had warm words for London when he praised the two NATO allies’ bilateral military cooperation, which endured through the contentious years of Britain’s departure from the EU.

“The British are deep natural allies (for France) and the treaties that bind us together… lay a solid foundation,” he said.

“We have to follow them up and strengthen them, because Brexit has not affected this relationship,” Macron added.

The president also said France should seek similar “partnerships” with fellow EU members.