The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron found himself this Tuesday evening Alongside activist Paul Watsonon the set of France 2.. The founder of Sea Shepherd had been arrested in October in Denmark and was threatened with extradition to Japan, for acts related to his fight against whaling. At his release in December, he joined Francewhere his family is.
“Yes I ask for asylum,” said Paul Watson on set this Tuesday evening, before the President of the Republic.
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Relaunched on this subject, Emmanuel Macron first assured the activist “that in France it is security, we watch it”. But “the President of the Republic is not the one who grants asylum”, he underlines. It is “an independent office” which is responsible for this mission, recalls the president: the OFPRA (French office for the protection of refugees and stateless).
However “given the situation in which he is, if he asks (asylum) to the office which gives it, I think he respects the rules to obtain it,” notes Emmanuel Macron, “so we will arrange so that he and his family can ask the OFPRA”.
Paul Watson had already asked, when he was in captivity, asylum for France. The Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, favorable to her release, had then replied: “To simply examine the political asylum, it must be done by having arrived on French territory, and you can see that the key point is its release”.
