French government responds to Marine Le Pen’s ‘Mexicanization’ remarks, Digi Mart USA News (France): The French government waited about two weeks to react to comments by Marine Le Pen about the “Mexicanization” of France, as it faced weeks of student and social protests.
Le Pen, the candidate of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, made the remarks on Sunday, October 18, during the launch of her presidential campaign in Orléans. She promised a firm crackdown on crime and warned that France must not slide toward “Mexicanization with the presence of cartels.”
Her speech received little attention at the time. France had woken that morning after a night of riots and looting of shops in several cities on Saturday, at the end of the first national day of protest against rising living costs.
Images from those disturbances were circulated worldwide and repeated on Sunday night, surprising many, including the government itself.
On Tuesday, November 3, Éléonore Caroit, minister delegate to the minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in charge of Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad, published a video on social media. In it, she said that “Mexicanization should not be an insult” and described Mexico as a “great allied country of France” with a millennia-old culture and immense wealth.
The video showed excerpts of reactions in Mexico to Le Pen’s remarks, including those of President Claudia Sheinbaum. Caroit used the occasion to criticize Le Pen’s rhetoric, which, six months before the presidential election, continues to lead polls with between 32 and 33.5 percent of voting intentions.
“The Le Penization of political life means accumulating confusion, clumsiness and ultimately diplomatic missteps. When we aim to lead a country, we cannot afford that kind of error,” said Caroit, who accompanied President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Mexico in November 2025.
Caroit, whose father is French and mother Dominican, added that drug trafficking “is a scourge that affects us all” and can only be fought through international cooperation, which she said is not possible without good relations with countries such as Mexico.
The term has a history in French politics. In November 2024, after a shooting in Poitiers linked to drug trafficking, then Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, now the presidential candidate of the center-right Les Républicains party, also spoke of the “Mexicanization of France.” The Mexican embassy in Paris responded with a statement regretting the “unfortunate statements by French officials.” Retailleau repeated the concept in 2025 and again in July, when he said that “the Mexicanization of France is underway” and that the state must equip itself with all tools to fight drug traffickers.
