France
The tough new law contains so many harsh measures that far-right Marine Le Pen has described it as an “ideological victory”.
The French government is mired in a political crisis after Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau offered to resign in protest against tough immigration laws.
Emmanuel Macron's ruling centrist party was left divided and soul-searching on Wednesday after parliament passed a tough new immigration law, but one that contained so many tough measures that far-right Marine Le Pen hailed it as an “ideological victory” for her own anti-democratic party designated. Immigration platform.
Rousseau immediately offered to resign in protest against the law, but Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne did not say whether she would accept it. It was unclear whether other ministers would offer to resign.
The bill was initially intended to show that Macron could take tough measures on immigration while keeping France open to foreign workers who could help the economy in sectors that are struggling to fill jobs.
His interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, had argued that the bill was “protecting the French” and said the government needed to take tough anti-immigration measures to curb the rise of Le Pen's far-right anti-immigration National Rally party, which is now the largest opposition party in Parliament and is in first place in polls ahead of next year's European elections.
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But after opposition parties refused to even debate the immigration bill in parliament last week, a compromise text was immediately drawn up by a parliamentary special committee. As a result, the centrist government put forward a much stricter, right-wing bill that restricted access to social benefits for foreigners, tightened rules for foreign students, introduced migration quotas, made it more difficult for the children of foreigners born in France to become French, and ruled that people with dual citizenship Citizens convicted of serious crimes against the police could lose their French citizenship.
Within Macron's centrist group, numerous lawmakers voted against the bill or abstained, revealing deep divisions particularly on the left of Macron's own centrist Renaissance Party. Sacha Houlié, a key left-wing figure in Macron's party who led the special committee on the law, voted against it.
Le Pen, leader of the far-right anti-immigrant National Rally party, said her party would vote for the bill, calling it an “ideological victory.” Far-right lawmaker Edwige Diaz called the bill “undeniably inspired by Marine Le Pen.”
A key part of the bill was to make some social security benefits for foreigners conditional on having spent five years in France, or 30 months for those who have a job. The left-wing opposition said this amounted to Macron copying the controversial central manifesto promise of decades of far-right politics under Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter Marine Le Pen: the idea of ”national preference” in which social benefits and housing should be included “For the French first”.
Elsa Faucillon, the communist lawmaker, said the government was using the same words and ideas as the far-right and going further than Giorgia Meloni in Italy.
It is “the most regressive bill in the last 40 years for the rights and living conditions of foreigners, including those who have been residing in France for a long time,” some 50 groups, including the French Human Rights League, said in a joint statement.
The government argued that the bill also contains liberal measures such as the legalization of undocumented workers in sectors with labor shortages, including construction, health and care, and hotels and restaurants.
Borne wrote on X that it was “a necessary, useful bill” that the French had wanted. She said it was “efficient and consistent with the values of the Republican Party” and that the “general interest” prevailed.
The bill was passed by MPs from Macron's party, who voted alongside the right-wing Les Républicains. Although Le Pen's far-right MPs also voted in favor, the government had enough votes even without them.
Left-wing opposition politicians pointed out that when Macron was re-elected for a second term in 2022, he acknowledged that many voters chose him not for his own ideas, but to keep out the far-right ideas of his opponent Marine Le Pen.
Cyrielle Chatelain, a Green MP, told parliament there was a feeling of “shame and betrayal” that Macron had instead introduced the ideas of the far right with this bill.
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