Macron gets tough on terrorism and defies the ECHR

France and Israel share terrorism as their “common enemy”, declared Emmanuel Macron in Jerusalem today, during a visit which coincides with the French government’s toughest crackdown on immigration and asylum in decades.

During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron stressed that freeing nine French hostages currently trapped in Gaza was a priority for Paris while proposing that leaders draw on the experience of a coalition formed in 2014 to fight Islamic State to help fight against Hamas. 

Macron suggested that the international coalition fighting against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria now include the fight against Hamas in Gaza. It is unclear how the US-led group of dozens of countries, of which Israel is not a member, could be involved. France has suggested more intelligence sharing, rather than a use of troops.

As the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza nears 5,800, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, Macron cautioned too that the fight against Gaza’s terrorist group “must be without mercy but not without rules” – the rules of international law. Notably, while the French leader is just the latest in a string of Western leaders to visit Israel, he will be the first to meet his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank later on today, where he plans to discuss a “decisive relaunch” of the Palestinian peace process. 

Macron is determined to act tough on terrorism and keen to draw parallels with France. 

“I want to make sure you are not left alone in this war on terrorism…because I speak on behalf of a country which experienced terrorist attacks, and you were there,” he told Netanyahu. 

This toughness is being mirrored in French domestic policy. Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, has announced that the French government is prepared to break European human rights law in order to expel foreign criminals, and notably radical Islamists, from the country. 

Under Darmanin’s proposed immigration bill, Paris would deport foreigners deemed a threat without waiting for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to hear their appeals. If their removal was later judged to have violated the ECHR, Paris would pay a fine but it would not accept them back into the country. If a UK government tried this, it is not difficult to imagine the opposition it would face from critics.

The proposal is influenced by the killing of Dominique Bernard, a teacher in Arras, northern France, who was murdered earlier this month by a former pupil who is thought to be an Islamist radical. The killer was refused asylum in France but escaped deportation because of the young age at which he had arrived in the country. 

Macron’s apparent willingness to circumvent the ECHR will be interpreted as a move to the right. It’s a move aimed at winning over the increasing number of voters who are considering backing Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party.

Le Pen’s rising popularity isn’t such a direct threat to Macron now that he is due to step down at the end of his second term in 2027. But his interior minister Darmanin, who harbours ambitions for the Élysée Palace, is desperate not to let Le Pen capitalise on heightened fears over terrorism. 

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