French people took to the streets in the country's main cities on Sunday, calling on the country's president to prevent the law, described as “the toughest in 40 years,” from coming into force.
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Tens of thousands of people protested in Paris and several French cities this weekend against the new immigration law, which has caused great controversy in the country. The demonstrators called on President Emmanuel Macron to prevent the entry into force of the norm, which was described as “the most difficult thing in 40 years“.
The anti-immigrant law was passed by the French Parliament at the end of December and is, according to critics of the law, a remedy a “betrayal” of values French.
According to the French Interior Ministry Around 75,000 people took part at the protests, 16,000 of them in Paris. However, the CGT union estimated that at least 150,000 people took part in the demonstrations on Sunday.
Withdrawal of permits
The law implements, among other things: Annual Fee for Immigrants (except for asylum seekers) and the withdrawal of the residence permit due to violation of the law or “violation of the principles of the republic”.
Furthermore, the new regulation represents a serious regulation Reduction in benefits and subsidies for immigrants and aims to prevent the arrival of relatives of immigrants in the country.
Among the organizers of the demonstrations were more than 200 politicians, unions, intellectuals and artists who asserted that the law was “written under the dictates of the hate mongers who dream of forcing it on France.” his “national preference” project..
A right turn
The protests come at a crucial time, namely the Constitutional Council will have to decide This Thursday it will be decided whether the articles of the law violate the French constitution or not.
Initially Macron supported the law, but in an unusual twist, said some articles may be unconstitutional. The newspaper Le Monde recently quoted an anonymous Interior Ministry official as saying that the Constitutional Council could annul “a dozen” of the articles.
The anti-immigrant law appears to reflect centrist Macron's latest attempt Tilt the government to the rightahead of the European elections to be held in June and amid fears about the growing popularity of the French far right.