Ukrainians welcome in France, not Arab refugees: Presidential candidate Zemmour

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who has been criticized for his prior backing for Russian President Vladimir Putin, thinks Ukrainians with familial ties to France should be granted visas rather than those fleeing wars in Arab Muslim countries, reports France 24.

After the European Union decided to allow Ukrainians fleeing the violence to stay and work in the 27-nation bloc for up to three years, Zemmour cautioned on Tuesday that a "emotional response" risked unleashing a flood of refugees across Europe.

The United Nations has said that more than 2 million Ukrainians have already fled the country.

Zemmour praised the United Kingdom's tougher stance, said the France 24 report.

Britain rejected requests on Monday to relax visa conditions for Ukrainian refugees.

"If they have ties to France, if they have family in France...let's give them visas," Zemmour told BFM TV.

Different regulations for would-be asylum seekers from Europe and those from Arab Muslim countries, according to the writer and polemicist, who has already been convicted of inciting racial hatred.

France, according to Zemmour, was once a magnificent nation that is now in decline, with its Christian civilisation being eroded by the growing impact of Islam and immigration.

"It's a question of assimilation," Zemmour said. "There are people who are like us and people who unlike us. Everybody now understands that Arab or Muslim immigrants are too unlike us and that it is harder and harder to integrate them."

'CLOSER TO CHRISTIAN EUROPEANS'

In September 2020, Zemmour tweeted that he supported a "Russian alliance" and that Moscow was "the most loyal ally, even more so than the US, Germany, or the United Kingdom."

He has expressed his displeasure with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reports Reuters.

Russia's assault on Ukraine – which Moscow describes as a 'special operation to de-Nazify its neighbour – and public disgust over the cross-border exodus of Ukrainian citizens has hurt Zemmour in the polls.

Zemmour's support has fallen by 3 to 4 points to about 12% in voter surveys taken since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Europe's open-arm welcome to fleeing Ukrainians contrasts with the reluctance to accept large numbers of refugees from conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, with some Arab refugees complaining of double standards.