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Dalia Frantz is responsible for European issues at La Cimade, a French association founded in 1939 to support migrants. The organisation advocates for human rights and also provides accommodation and legal aid to exiles. Dalia Frantz previously worked for the organisations France Terre d'Asile and Droits d'Urgence.
Voxeurop: How do you interpret the results of the European elections?
Dalia Frantz: For us it wasn't a big surprise, we had suspected for some time that the far right would win more seats. But it's not easy to make your voice heard at European level. These are elections that are ignored by the public, and that's how the far right wins. The results are very disappointing. Even if the balance of power is not much upset, we still have a very right-wing parliament, controlled by the European People's Party. Apart from the prominence of the far right, what has really alarmed us is the fact that its message has been co-opted by the other political parties, which have found themselves singing from its song-book in an attempt to win back its votes. For example, we saw the EPP make similar proposals on migration. Personally, I'm not sure that this is the most important issue for Europe, compared with climate change, for example.
But it's rarely a winning game, trying to win back the votes of the far right...
No. As we have seen in France, it creates a lot of instability and also causes other issues to be forgotten. We've also seen lots of misinformation, conflation, and so on. At La Cimade, we've tried to deconstruct these arguments, but it's hard because they're so prevalent in the media. Even if the far right was not completely victorious in these elections, it managed to instil its policy ideas.
What does this mean in terms of European policy? Should we expect a change in the migration and asylum pact?
That is difficult to say, but we're not expecting any. It's a project that took years to negotiate and was very complex. And it has not even been implemented yet! But the implementation is itself an issue, since the procedures are very cumbersome and raise questions about respect for human rights. And obviously, the far right will also be able to take action at national level.
