Presumably, many leading Brussels officials would view a heavy portion of the almost 26,000 respondents as being on the ‘far right,’ given that 59% said the “fight” against illegal migration should be a “priority.” Though they might not say this now, given their own efforts to look tough on migration in order to attract right-wing voters ahead of the European elections. Euronews itself does not, however, mind blaming “far-right parties” for “fuel[ing]” concerns surrounding migration issues.
If anything, the 59% figure might seem low. But a fuller picture of the electorate’s views on migration can be gained by adding to the total those who say illegal migration is not a priority but is “important” nonetheless.
In Denmark, for example, the poll suggests that 59% of voters view illegal migration as “a priority” and 33% as “important but not a priority.” That’s 92% in total, leaving just 8% of voters who see the issue as “secondary.” (The same lowly figure was produced in Czechia and Finland, while in Austria, Belgium, Greece and Sweden, an equally unimpressive 9% said tackling illegal migration is “secondary.”)
The report does not consider European views on what Euronews might have called ‘regular’—that is, legal—migration. But many voters view this as being more important, not least because it is a much bigger issue in terms of numbers.
It appears, however, that this is not how UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sees it. According to former home secretary Suella Braverman, Sunak has “not necessarily assumed that [legal migration is] an important issue for the British people.” She added that when she was part of his government, the prime minister would talk about illegal crossings “every week, twice a week,” but could not be pinned down for a conversation on uncontrolled mass legal migration. And this was after the Brexit vote, which few pundits dispute centred around voters’ frustration with effectively wide-open borders.
It is worth noting that while Braverman’s criticisms of the Tory leader—who sacked her and who she has made numerous clear attempts to replace—might usually be best taken with a pinch of salt, it is already very believable that Sunak views legal immigration as politically unimportant since. After all, he is a thoroughly liberal Westminster type who also didn’t believe in the Rwanda plan to stop illegal migration.
Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, said that regardless of Sunak’s views, he “is going to be remembered as the prime minister who finally gave up any pretence of border control.” Bates told The European Conservative:
The former Home Secretary spoke for millions of voters when she repeatedly attempted to raise the problems of mass migration around the cabinet table. Unfortunately no one else in that room would have had the inclination or the political will to tackle the problem head on.
It’s all very well and good pledging to “Stop the Boats,” but with no hint of the Channel crossings stopping, and the British public cottoning onto the fact that the real border disaster is our levels of legal migration, Sunak’s party are set to face a kicking come the general election. Come polling day, I’m sure they’ll all be wishing that they listened to Mrs. Braverman when she tried to raise the alarm.
As for the rest of Europe, the success of attempts by politicians on the Left to appear right on migration will be tested this June when voters go to the polls.
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Dear gript.
You’ve got nearly 100,000 followers to your accounts, yet haven’t given one article this week to deal directly with the Migrant Sharing Pact
– the week the govt. have announced that they intend to sign up to it (which is set to happen soon if not stopped)
As the only Irish media company who has reported on the migration issue with any integrity or honesty, I would have thought that you would be rushing to correct RTE’s mischaracterisation of the pact (‘speeding up’….etc.), and the same elsewhere.
The Pact, as you know, commits Ireland to accepting migrants from the mediterranean, the Balkans, and any other route – which it at present has no obligation to do.
The quantity has been stated to be a percentage allocation on all member states.
The pact will increase and regularise this flow
They would be flown or otherwise transported from the ports in Sicily, Greece, Lampedusa, Malta, etc., directly to Ireland.
.
You have covered the ‘no identity papers’ issue mutiple times. This new development would make that utterly irrelevant – control of the right of access or limitiation will be entirely taken away from the State, and a permanent migration highway directly into the country imposed upon us.
We all know that once they’re here, the government have no intention of sending them home.
I know it’s a fine line between reporting on an issue and trying to influence issues (one which is breached by your media colleagues every day, in any case), but it’s pretty clear that the reporting of facts here is all that is needed.
No editorial colouring necessary.
Can we expect a clear article from you in the next 24 hours – one that will have ‘EU MIGRANT PACT’ in the title – spelling out what it is, what its implications are, and point out that Ireland has an Opt-Out which the govt. are refusing to avail of – contrary to the undeniable wishes (as per all polling on the matter of immigration) of the Irish people ?
Thats because the EU was setup to wipe white people out through the kalergi plan. It was literally it’s main function.
dear gript, please stop posting photos of this evil despicable excuse for a human being, let alone any kind of representative of the people of europe. the sight of her turns my stomach. if they reinstate the guillotine outside the houses of parliament in the centre of paris this gowl should be the very first rat to have her disgusting head in the bucket
https://www.businesspost.ie/news/ireland-to-be-liable-for-more-asylum-seekers-than-most-other-eu-countries-under-new-pact/
“Ireland will be responsible for a larger portion of asylum seekers per capita than nearly all other European countries under new EU plans, the Business Post can reveal.. ”
Get the f’n word out
#IrelandSaysNotoEUMigrantPact
• A Priority
• Important but not a priority
• Seconrary
If they included a fourth option, i.e. for voters who didn’t think ‘irregular’ migration was an issue, the numbers with such an opinion was too small to register !
Maeve what’s-her-face shaming Ireland on euronews as usual.
Good job nobody watches…
Flat out objections to permissive immigration policies have been building in individual member states for at least a decade now. Local political backlashes emerged as far back as late 1980s, even before the Iron Curtain came down. But what’s happening now is of a different order.
It’s fairly safe to say that most countries in Europe now have a baseline voter cohort in the range of 25-40% which is viscerally hostile to ‘official’ narratives from both leftist radicals and business interests. One by one the ‘whack-a-mole rationales’ for ‘open borders’ (whatever that ever meant) are collapsing – labour shortages, falling birth rates, war or conflict, local discrimination, climate change, ‘diversity’, imperialism payback, and the latest humbug instant cliché ‘international protection’.
This voter baseline is neither left nor ‘right’, neither liberal nor conservative. It is a pragmatic backlash of the ideologically unaligned who have lost patience with patronising justifications for a social and cultural engineering experiment no-one really asked for.
The EP elections promise to be an eye-opener.