Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, asked by RN president Jordan Bardella for a "precise estimate" of the number of foreigners in "illegal situations," gave an estimate of 700,000 on Wednesday, stating that the government was on the offensive against illegal immigration.

Pressed on CNews/Europe 1 whether he maintained an estimate of 200,000 to 300,000 illegal immigrants given on Monday on LCI, the minister replied: "No, no," "on another channel (...) I did not want to give a figure so as not to fuel controversy, clearly implying that it was not the right one."

The president of the far-right party has targeted Laurent Nuñez, the former Paris police chief appointed to Beauvau, in recent days, criticizing his "inaction." He sent him a letter after hearing him "refusing to answer a journalist's question on LCI regarding the number of illegal immigrants."

Laurent Nuñez stressed on Wednesday that only estimates exist.

When it was pointed out to him that former Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had spoken in 2021 of 700,000 illegal immigrants, the current tenant of Beauvau declared: "That's exactly it. And then another time, he gave a range between 600 and 900,000. My predecessor (Bruno Retailleau, editor's note) had spoken of half a million."

"If we work seriously, and we have done so - I obviously know the figure - if we work on state medical aid and extrapolate the number, the estimate of illegal aliens in our country is 700,000," he continued.

"In my mind, things are very clear, there is no difficulty: 700,000 illegal immigrants in France is an estimate. The range of 6 to 900,000 seems quite coherent to me, but the figure of 700,000 is just as coherent. But once again, I insist, I never want anyone to give the impression that we are doing nothing on these issues."

Asked how he described the level of immigration and why he did not use the term "migratory submersion", the minister replied that "there is a migratory challenge: the climate context, the economic crises" and that "we must work with Europe to better control our borders and be more effective on national territory".

But "there are words that I do not use," he added, because "systematically, when we go to these debates, it is to point out a failure of the public authorities," which he rejected.