dIt is difficult to escape it: the vast issue of immigration, in all its aspects, serves as fuel for far-right parties throughout Europe and drags those of the classical right into a dangerous competition with this far right. It also places social democratic groups in a dilemma that they find increasingly difficult to avoid.
The issue practically does not exclude any democracy in the Euro-Atlantic region. Incandescent in the speech of former Republican President Donald Trump, it poisons the mandate of his successor, Joe Biden, and pushes Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic candidate for the November 5 elections, to break with the traditional rhetoric of her party. Polls reveal a significant gap in favor of Trump on the issue of illegal immigration. However, this issue is crucial in Arizona, one of the seven key states in which the elections will be played: bordering Mexico, Arizona is, like Texas, on the front line of immigration tensions.
On September 27, Kamala Harris went to the border, in Arizona, to confront the burning issue and spoke clearly. She, who four years ago, during the Democratic primaries, pledged to decriminalize illegal border crossings, now gives another speech: “The United States is a sovereign country and I believe it is our duty to impose rules on our border and enforce them. »
“Be in control”
In doing so, the Democratic candidate is aware of the risk she runs of alienating the left-wing currents of her party. Therein lies the dilemma: convince voters that it is possible to maintain control over arrivals to their country without tolerating the inhumane treatment of desperate civilian populations. And here too Kamala Harris speaks clearly, or at least tries to: “I reject this fallacious option that we must choose between securing our border and creating a system that is orderly, secure and humane. We can and must do both. »
“Shit”replies Donald Trump, stubbornly focused on his stance of demonizing immigrants who eat domestic animals, which remains, from his point of view, more electorally profitable.
Their European emulators aren’t… yet? – absolutely there, but the dynamics are the same on this side of the Atlantic and moderate left politicians face the same challenge as Kamala Harris. A social democratic leader, particularly Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, symbolizes a “paradigm shift” His party affirms this: the introduction of very restrictive legislation on the conditions of entry into Denmark has allowed the extreme right to be weakened. Mette Frederiksen has remained comfortably in power since 2019.
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