French President Emmanuel Macron and the neoliberal Renaissance (RE)-led government worked with the conservative Les Republicans (LR) to push a controversial immigration law in the French Parliament on December 19. The passing of the law was celebrated by the far-right forces in the country including the National Rally (RN) led by Marine Le Pen and has sparked a crisis within the government.
Leftist and anti-racist groups in and outside the parliament, meanwhile, expressed outrage at the passing of the bill in the National Assembly. The legislation imposes tougher restrictions for immigrants in France when it comes to obtaining citizenship and other social benefits. On December 20, various parties constituting the leftist New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES) coalition, trade unions including the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), and various rights groups denounced the bill as divisive and called to organize joint protests against its implementation. On the evening of December 21, mobilizations protesting the bill were organized in cities across the county.
Progressives accuse the bill of being drafted in a way that fulfills the decades-long demands of far-right groups to impose tighter restrictions on immigrants and refugees. The bill was passed in the National Assembly with 349 votes against 186 votes and was earlier approved in the Senate. Macron’s Renaissance party, which does not have a simple majority in the lower house, reached an agreement with the right-wing La Republicans before the vote. The bill was also endorsed by MPs from the National Rally (RN) led by Marine Le Pen, which hailed the passing of the bill as an ideological victory of her far-right party.
Certain sections within Macron’s party were also upset over the right-wing bill, and in a major blow to the Macron government, Minister of Health Aurelien Rousseau resigned in protest to the bill. Meanwhile, Macron’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, the major proponent of the bill, stated that “the government wants greater firmness against foreign offenders.”
The current text of the controversial bill introduces migration quotas, extends the minimum period required to access social benefits like family allowances, personalized housing assistance, etc from six months to 5 years of legal residence in the country, tightens the conditions of access to French nationality by ending the automatic endowment of the citizenship to children born in France to immigrant parents and extending the period of residence in France from five years to ten years for naturalization. The bill calls for extending the length of stay in France to apply for family reunification from 18 to 24 months; reinstates the offense of illegal residence and deprivation of nationality in the event of attempted homicide or homicide of law enforcement officers or any person holding public authority.
Even though the bill was passed in the parliament, it requires approval from the Constitution Council, which checks whether any provision in the current text of the bill contradicts the principles in the French Constitution. Anti-racism groups have highlighted that the inhumane bill contradicts the very basic ideals supposedly cherished by the French Republic: Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!
In the last two presidential elections, the people of France voted in the second round for Macron to block the far-right leader Marine Le Pen from assuming the presidency. For anti-fascists, it is disheartening to see Macron’s government passing legislation in tandem with Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, far-right party.
L’insoumission, affiliated with La France Insoumise left-wing movement, published a video pointing out Emmanuel Macron’s extreme hypocrisy. On April 24, 2022, he declared that “to those who voted for me, not to support my ideas but to block those of the extreme right, your vote obliges me.” And on December 19, 2023, the same Macron and 75% of his MPs voted for a bill hailed as an “ideological victory” by the far-right National rally (RN).
The French communist newspaper L’Humanite has initiated a petition calling for the government to repeal the legislation that “fractures the foundations of the Republic, by instilling the xenophobic poison of national preference”. As of December 21, more than 7,000 citizens including trade unionists, politicians, artists, etc have endorsed the appeal.
On December 20 the general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) Sophie Binet, told Ouest-France that the CGT will mobilize alongside other unions and associations to “ensure that this law never applies”.
Protesting the bill, leader of the French Communist Party (PCF) Fabien Roussel called out to “organize the resistance and civil disobedience by all those who are in charge of keeping the Republic and its values alive.”
