Retailleau regrets that France has not established "a sufficiently strong balance of power" with Algeria.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed regret on Thursday that France had not established "a sufficiently strong balance of power" with Algeria on the OQTF, while his rival for the presidency, LR Laurent Wauquiez, held up Italian Giorgia Meloni as a "model for the right."

"I want OQTFs (citizens under obligation to leave French territory) to be sent back to their country of origin," he said, when asked on LCI about Laurent Wauquiez's proposal to send "dangerous foreigners" under OQTF to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon .

"Things aren't working well with Algeria. I don't think we've established a sufficiently strong balance of power," he lamented, mentioning "other measures to be taken," without elaborating.

Initially, Bruno Retailleau stated a month ago that he did not want to "controversialize" Laurent Wauquiez's proposal and simply described it as "confusing."

The issue of the readmission of Algerians under OQTF to their country of origin, raised repeatedly by the French Minister of the Interior, has inflamed bilateral relations in recent weeks.

For his part, Laurent Wauquiez described the Italian head of government, Giorgia Meloni, on the same channel as "a model for the right because, at least, she doesn't just have words, she delivers results."

"I see what she has done on illegal immigration, which she has reduced by 65%, and what she has done at the same time on the recovery of the economy, where she has reduced the budget deficit (and) tackled welfare," he said, referring to the Italian leader, who is close to Marion Maréchal.

The leader of the LR deputies called for a "rally of the right from Gérald Darmanin to Sarah Knafo (Reconquest)", but by excluding the RN, whose economic line he assures is "extreme left".

Giorgia Meloni, head of the post-fascist Fratelli d'Italia (FDI) party, leads Italy with an ultraconservative coalition.

Furthermore, in an interview with Le Figaro, even before members chose the new LR president on Sunday, Laurent Wauquiez already announced the return match for the designation of the right-wing candidate for the presidential election.

"In a year, we will choose the best: if it is Bruno Retailleau, I will give him my full support; if it is me, we will do it as a team," he predicted, limiting the choice of the presidential candidate at LR to members, just like the Minister of the Interior.