Epress.am News from Armenia
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said there are too many foreigners in France and the system for integrating them is “working more and more badly,” the BBC reports.
In a TV debate, Sarkozy defended his plan to cut the number of new arrivals in half if he is re-elected next month.
The president said while immigration could be a boon for France, it needed to be controlled more tightly through tougher qualification rules for residency.
Sarkozy, whose father was a Hungarian immigrant, also said he wanted to restrict some benefit payments to immigrants who had been in the country for 10 years.
So far the election campaign seems to have made relatively little impact on voters.
The latest opinion poll published on Tuesday showed the Socialist leader Francois Hollande widening his lead over Sarkozy.
Sarkozy is also competing for conservative voters with the far-right National Front party led by Marine le Pen.