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2012-03-07 10:47:07
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said there are too many foreigners in
France and the system for integrating them is "working more and more badly".
In a TV debate, Mr Sarkozy defended his plan to almost halve the number of new
arrivals if re-elected next month.
Mr Sarkozy is trailing in the opinion polls behind the Socialist candidate
Francois Hollande.
He is also competing for conservative voters with the far-right National Front
party led by Marine le Pen.
The president said while immigration could be a boon for France, it needed to
be controlled more tightly through tougher qualification rules for residency.
Mr Sarkozy, whose father was a Hungarian immigrant, also said he wanted to
restrict some benefit payments to immigrants who had been in the country for 10
years.
Tough new rules
He has often made controversial comments on race and immigration issues,
sharply dividing opinion in France.
In 2005, just before the Paris riots, he described young delinquents in the
Paris suburbs as "racaille", meaning rabble.
He has said that if re-elected, he will reduce the number of immigrants to
France from 180,000 a year to 100,000 and introduce tighter controls on access
to welfare benefits.
As president, Mr Sarkozy has already pushed through tough new immigration
rules, including the controversial deportation of Roma gypsies.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Francois Fillon caused dismay among Muslim and
Jewish groups by suggesting the religious slaughter of animals was out of date.
The controversy started when a TV documentary said last month that all the
abattoirs in Paris region only produced halal meat.
So far the election campaign seems to have made relatively little impact on
voters.
The latest opinion poll published on Tuesday by CSA showed the Socialist leader
Francois Hollande widening his lead over President Sarkozy for the 22 April
vote.
It also suggested that the Socialist leader would win decisively by 54% to 46%
in a second round of voting on 6 May.