On Wednesday, the French Parliament passed a controversial new immigration law. The bill was voted, with so many harsh provisions that the far-right Marine Le Pen hailed it as an “ideological victory” for her own anti-immigration program.

However, Emmanuel Macron’s ruling centrist party was split and going through some soul-searching.
Aurélien Rousseau, the French minister of health, resigned in protest over a strict immigration measure, putting the government in political disarray.

In protest of the law, Rousseau promptly tendered his resignation.
Furthermore, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne did not state whether or not she would accept it. It remained to be seen if additional ministers would submit resignation offers.

The French Assembly reacts to the Bill

The law was ultimately approved by the lower house with an overwhelming majority, meaning that the ruling party did not require the backing of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) in order to pass the bill.

The immigration laws have been tightened even further since the bill was first introduced thanks to a number of modifications, and the left wing is accusing the government of giving in to pressure from the extreme right.

The far-right National Rally party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, declared that her party will support the bill and referred to it as a “ideological victory.” The bill was dubbed “incontestably inspired by Marine Le Pen” by far-right MP Edwige Diaz.

Le Pen supported the amended measure, but some of Macron’s left-wing supporters in the Renaissance Party and its allies said they could no longer support it. Some ministers even reportedly threatened to quit.

“Now that this is enshrined in law as a national priority, we can rejoice in ideological progress, an ideological victory even for the National Rally,” stated Le Pen, the three-time presidential candidate who leads the RN’s lawmakers in parliament and has been expected to run again in 2027.

The RN had earlier declared that it would either abstain or vote against the bill. Her unexpected action was branded a “kiss of death” for Macron’s party by the French media.
Macron suffered a serious setback last week when the plan was rejected by the National Assembly without even a debate.

The bill was already passed by the Senate of the upper house and passed the lower house with 349 votes in favor and 186 votes against.

A meeting participant reported that Macron threatened to send the bill to a new reading instead of establishing it if Le Pen’s RN votes were the only thing keeping it from being enacted.

At their meeting with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Ministers of Housing, Higher Education, and Health Aurelien Rousseau and Patrice Vergriete warned each other they would step down, according to sources who spoke to AFP.

Borne declared on social media site X following the vote, “The far right’s plan has failed; the majority has stood together.”

Highlights of the New French Immigration Bill

One of the main elements of the bill is that foreigners will only be eligible for social security payments after five years of residency in France, or thirty months if they are employed.

There are currently mechanisms for the removal of French nationality from dual-national prisoners, as well as the ability to agree on migration quotas.

The primary objective of the bill was to demonstrate to Macron that he could enforce strict immigration laws while still allowing foreign workers to enter France and support the country’s economy by filling jobs in understaffed industries.

A special parliamentary committee quickly drafted a compromise language after opposition parties declined to even discuss the immigration law in parliament last week.

Consequently, the centrist government presented a much more extreme right-wing bill that, among other things, restricted foreigners’ access to welfare benefits, tightened regulations for foreign students, imposed migration quotas, made it more difficult for non-natives born in France to obtain French citizenship, and declared that dual nationals convicted of serious crimes against the French government could lose their French citizenship.

Renowned left-wing Renaissance MP Sacha Houlie had declared he would vote against the bill and urged others to do the same; according to some accounts, some thirty MPs who supported Macron would back him.

Ahead of the vote, Macron called a meeting of his ruling party at the Elysee Palace, party sources told AFP, indicating the gravity of the issue.

The 41-year-old, highly ambitious Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who has led the legislation’s development, had warned Le Pen on Sunday that if the bill is not passed, she could lose the 2027 presidential race.

The bill, according to interior minister Gérald Darmanin, “protected the French.” He claimed that the government had to impose strict immigration laws to stop Le Pen’s anti-immigration far-right National Rally from becoming the largest opposition party in parliament and leading the polls ahead of the European elections the following year.

The idea that the bill might pass had horrified the left and hard-left, with Boris Vallaud, the leader of the Socialist legislators in the National Assembly, denouncing it as a “great moment of dishonour for the government”.

Enacting the law was essential for Macron, who faces being viewed as a lame duck with over three years remaining in office if he is unable to run again in 2027 after serving two consecutive terms.

After his reelection in 2022, there have been no parliamentary elections and the government has not held a majority in parliament.
After the news spread, what dozens of NGOs called the “most regressive” immigration law in decades, the move of the parliament was hugely criticized.

About 50 organizations, including the French Human Rights League, declared in a joint statement that the law is “the most regressive bill of the past 40 years for the rights and living conditions of foreigners, including those who have long been in France.”

The chairman of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, stated, “With this text directly inspired by RN pamphlets against immigration, we are facing a shift in the history of the republic and its fundamental values.”
The French people known to be very kind hosts, are henceforth left to ponder upon the new policies this bill offers for foreigners who have been long settled in the land.