The politician, curious to find out if he would meet police or gendarmes on a route used by illegal migrants, encountered no checks or controls on his way. He managed to cross into France from Italy without a hitch, illegally.

Damien Rieu, a member of right-wing politician Eric Zemmour’s party, committed an act of illegal border crossing to find out if the Italy-France section of the border – near the town of Menton in the south of France – where illegal migrants tend to slip across into France was under any proper control. He posted the video he filmed during his journey on Twitter.

🔴⚠️ La nuit dernière j’ai traversé clandestinement la frontière France/Italie sans aucun contrôle !

🗳 Le 12 juin, votez pour un député garde-frontières pour donner effectifs et moyens á nos policiers et gendarmes ! #Menton #Riviera #Circo0604 #Legislatives pic.twitter.com/MiT6xIEbWn

— Damien Rieu (@DamienRieu) June 8, 2022

Comments heard in the video reveal that it takes several hours of walk to cover the distance. On the way, he found traces left by pieces of rope that probably served as signs for migrants, put out by smugglers or other helpers.

The border was marked by a simple ramshackle fence and a rickety gate that could be easily opened. Entering the French side, Mr Rieu found personal belongings lying about on the ground: a vest, shoes, and a bottle of water. The politician assumed that they belonged to an illegal migrant. Presumably, the owner of the scattered items had used the same route as Mr Rieu, which means it is probably a well-known and regularly used migrant route.

In his video Damien Rieu underlined that he encountered no checks or controls during his illegal border crossing stunt, adding that it was not the fault of the border guards, who do all they can. What is needed, he said, is political will to provide more staff and equipment for guarding and securing the border. Mr Rieu stressed that if he received enough votes at the parliamentary elections on 12 June, people could count on him to personally put pressure on Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and the government to ensure the protection of residents from criminals and terrorists like Brahim Aouissaoui, who used the same route to reach France.

Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old Muslim man of Tunisian descent, is the perpetrator of the 2020 Nice terror attack which left 3 people dead in the city’s Notre Dame cathedral. He escaped into France from the island of Lampedusa and had only been staying in the country for about a month when he executed his victims with brutal cruelty.