Macron takes aim at migration with eye on French election

By SYLVIE CORBET
The Associated Press

TOURCOING, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing to strengthen the European Union’s external borders against migrants illegally entering the bloc’s passport-free area. The issue is central to France’s ongoing presidential campaign. Macron is expected to run for a second term in April’s election. Conservative and far-right candidates have made migration a priority issue. They criticize what they see as the French president’s inaction on countering migration inflows. Macron said in an interview to a regional newspaper that “our passport-free area (in Europe) is being threatened if we don’t know how to guard our external borders and monitor who is entering.” He met on Wednesday evening with the EU interior ministers in northern France.