The French daily Le Figaro reports in an article by Guillaume Errard that “the victory of the New Popular Front in the legislative elections is not good news for landlords who want to be able to evict a squatter or a tenant who has failed to pay their bills.”

If the hard Left led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party get into government they have pledged to repeal an Anti-Squat law that allows owners to kick out squatters within 72 hours and force them to go through “a long and costly legal procedure which generally lasts between one and two years” to get squatters out, much like the current situation in Spain. 

Furthermore, as Guillaume Errard points out in his article, owners who take justice into their own hands will be punished more harshly than squatters. “Before the anti-squat law put an end to this oddity, the former risked three years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros compared to “only” one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros for the latter.”

In Spain the squatter-friendly laws enable squatter mafias to extort money out of owners as it’s often quicker and cheaper to pay them to leave than to evict them through the courts. Expect the same to happen in France if the hard left takes power.