Three weeks ago, Wauquiez caused a stir by proposing that individuals under a deportation order deemed dangerous should be sent to the French archipelago of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, off the coast of Canada. He also recently said that France had become “the most violent country in Europe.”

Retailleau, for his part, has toughened France’s immigration policies since taking the interior minister job in September. He stated that a “multicultural society" carries the risk of also becoming “a multiracist society.”