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21-12-2023
PARIS: A key immigration reform is hanging in the balance in France, despite being approved by both houses of parliament.
The bill cleared the Senate and the National Assembly after far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her National Rally (RN) would vote for it.
A previous draft was rejected last week when far-right, far-left and moderate parties united to reject it but President Emmanuel Macron told his party before the latest vote that he did not want to owe victory to the RN.
He called a meeting of his MPs at the Elysee palace on Tuesday and told them that he would submit the bill to a new reading rather than let it become law on the basis of RN support, party sources and participants told media.
President Macron’s government was thrown into crisis when opposition MPs voted against the previous draft.
After the defeat, the bill was redrafted to be made tougher, as right-wing parties had demanded, prompting Le Pen to claim it represented an “ideological victory” for her party.
A key change was making housing benefit available only to foreigners who have lived in France for five years if unemployed, or three months if in a job.
Other reforms include making it more difficult to bring family members to France, as well as a ban on minors being held in administrative detention.
Right-wing leaders welcomed the changes.
“This is our bill,” said Eric Ciotti, the leader of the right-wing Republican Party. He called the bill “firm and courageous” but left-wingers expressed disappointment, accusing Macron of enabling the far right.
“We would never have imagined that when we called for people to vote for Emmanuel Macron twice, that the one who presented himself as a barrier against the far right would one day become its enabler,” Socialist party leader Olivier Faure said.
Sacha Houlie, an MP viewed as being on the left of President Macron’s party, voted against the bill.
Macron’s centrist Renaissance party lost its majority in parliament in elections in June 2022. Since then, the government has frequently found itself unable to win votes in parliament.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron’s government is in crisis after opposition parties united to defeat a key immigration bill.
MPs from the far right, far left and moderate parties voted on Monday to reject the draft law.
The left argued its measures were too repressive, while the right said they were not tough enough.
Following the defeat, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin offered to step down.
Viewed as a hardliner on immigration issues, he had strongly supported the draft law. However, Macron rejected his resignation.
The government argued the bill would both control immigration and better integrate migrants. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
