Opposition MPs have succeeded in scuppering the French government’s highly controversial immigration bill by having it thrown out before any debate began.
In a humiliating defeat for Emmanuel Macron, a motion to reject the law – known as the Darmanin law after the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin – was passed on Monday by five votes.
The motion, which was put forward by the Europe Écologie Les Verts party, was backed by an unlikely alliance of opposition MPs from parties including the Nupes (Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale), a leftwing alliance; Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National; and the conservative Les Républicains.
The government, which has no majority in the Assemblée Nationale, now faces the choice of sending the bill back to the upper house, the Sénat, passing it to a joint committee of seven MPs and seven senators to find a compromise, abandoning it altogether – which is unlikely – or forcing it through. The prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, could use the contentious constitutional tool article 49:3 to push it through without a vote.
Before the government’s defeat, Darmanin had said passing the motion to reject the bill would be “a denial of democracy”. “It would be strange to be unable to debate a subject that matters so much to French people,” he said.
After the rejection vote, Olivier Faure, the leader of France’s Socialist party (PS), said the interior minister had been “repudiated” and Darmanin had to “draw the necessary conclusions”. “It’s time to work on a bill that is in line with republican principles,” Faure said. “Foreigners should not be viewed as suspects.”
Olivier Dussopt, the employment minister, agreed with his cabinet colleague Darmanin. “Many MPs who have been calling for a debate on immigration for months and months have just denied themselves the debate,” he told a press conference.
Jordan Bardella, the president of Rassemblement National, which backed the bill being thrown out because it wanted tougher immigration legislation, called for Darmanin to resign. “Gérald Darmanin is guilty of inaction, omission and distortion. His bill contains no far-reaching measures to regain control (of immigration). In a functioning democracy, he would resign,” Bardella wrote on X.
The immigration bill, a major plank of Macron’s second term in office, has prompted protests and heated political argument for more than a year and has been heavily criticised by both the left and right. Borne has already withdrawn the bill once, in May, out of concerns it was too sensitive coming so soon after a long political and public battle over pension law changes.
The bill contains a raft of carrot-and-stick measures including mandatory language tests for foreigners applying for long-term residency, requiring them to prove they have “mastered a minimum level” of French. At present, passing a language test has been required only for those seeking citizenship.
The legislation would also allow for the easier expulsion of people who have settled in France but “do not respect the values of the republic”, including those convicted of certain crimes, and lowers the age at which foreigners could be expelled.
The Sénat, France’s upper house, which is controlled by the right, passed the bill last month after adding amendments that hardened several key elements of the legislation. These included scrapping state-funded healthcare for undocumented workers, limiting rights to citizenship and toughening rules for family members to settle in France. Senators also added an amendment exempting British second-home owners from visa rules introduced after Brexit.
Most of these amendments – including the easing of rules for British second-home owners – were dropped by the national assembly committee before its presentation to the house on Monday.
Source : The Guardian
