PARIS (AP) ? France kicked out more illegal immigrants last year than ever before, the government proudly announced Tuesday, in a message clearly aimed at anti-immigrant voters who may determine whether President Nicolas Sarkozy wins a second term.
Sarkozy's interior minister said he wants thousands more expelled this year, and fewer foreigners legally living in France, too. Anyone who wants to stay, he added, must shed traditions that contradict French values.
The conservative president is unpopular and facing a tough challenge from the left and the resurgent far right for presidential elections in April and May in an increasingly diverse France. Sarkozy hasn't formally declared his candidacy but is widely expected to run.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant vaunted the government's record, saying French authorities expelled 32,912 illegal immigrants in 2011, up 17.5 percent from 2010.
"This result is 5,000 higher than the initial objective decided upon at the start of the year. It is the highest result ever achieved," he said. The government wants the figure to rise to 35,000 this year, he added.
Echoing one of Sarkozy's favored themes, Gueant said immigrants must better integrate.
"We reject ... cloistered lives lived along ethnic and religious grounds, those that live by their own laws," Gueant told reporters. "The foreigners that we welcome here must integrate themselves. It is up to them to adapt to us, not the other way around."
The comment was in part a reference to France's ban on Islamic face veils, a 2010 law that supporters said defended women's freedoms and that critics said stigmatized millions of moderate Muslims.
France has western Europe's largest Muslim population, many with family ties to former French colonies in North Africa.
The majority of immigrants to France come here legally, though the number of new arrivals is shrinking and Gueant wants to reduce it further. The number of residency permits issued last year shrank 3.6 percent to 182,595, he said.
"We want to fight against illegal immigration and control the flow of normal immigration to France. What is at stake is the cohesion and the equilibrium of our society and our ability to maintain our tradition of welcoming them," Gueant said.
Sarkozy has championed strict policies on crime and illegal immigration, but it is ground where he is politically threatened by far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has a strong voter base and whose National Front party has targeted immigrants and Muslims for ire.
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Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.
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