The decline of the West

“If we look at crime in Paris today, we cannot fail to see that at least half of the crime comes from people who are foreigners, either illegal immigrants or those who are waiting for a residence permit.” President Macron last week. Not long ago this is the sort of remark that got people like Marine Le Pen prosecuted.

It was only two or three weeks before the Charlie Hebdo massacre that charges against her were dropped for saying about Muslim areas in France

It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of neighbourhoods in which religious law applies. It is an occupation. There are no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is an occupation anyhow and it weighs on people.

Now her words are more politically correct, and Macron, who has always been keen on immigration and accepting refugees, wants to seem less so.