The review of French immigration legislation was one of the major projects promised by President Emmanuel Macron and his Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin—after pension reform. Yet the Prime Minister has just announced that deliberation on the bill will be postponed till autumn, due to the lack of majority support.
The immigration bill was supposed to be one of the main projects on the agenda of the National Assembly between now and July 14th. Emmanuel Macron was particularly keen on this, but Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced on April 26th that the introduction of the bill would be postponed.
“Today, there is no majority to vote for such a text, as I was able to verify yesterday when I spoke with the head of Les Républicains,” she explained. Moreover, as immigration is a divisive issue in public opinion, the government does not want to risk aggravating the tension that already prevails in the country.
The Les Républicains group, ideologically positioned between the presidential group and the right wing of parliament, refuses to endorse the government’s plan, which it deems insufficient to tackle the problem of immigration. The parliamentary group already failed the presidential party by not supporting the adoption of the pension reform law, forcing the government to resort to using article 49.3 of the constitution. But this time, Élisabeth Borne does not intend to reproduce the same scenario of a passage by force and prefers to postpone the debate.
Les Républicains do not intend to assume responsibility for the postponed introduction of the law. “Madame Borne wants us to take the blame,” denounced European deputy François-Xavier Bellamy on France Inter. Éric Ciotti, the president of the party, intends to defend a firm line on the migration issue. According to him, Macron’s proposal shows “a willingness on the part of the government to carry out yet another project aimed at regularising illegal immigrants.”
Taking up positions defended earlier by Reconquête, Éric Zemmour’s party, and by Rassemblement National, Ciotti said he was in favour of organising a major referendum on the migration issue. The leader of the Les Républicains deputies, Olivier Marleix, in agreement with his counterpart in the Senate, wishes to introduce an alternative bill on immigration. It would include the introduction of annual quotas on the number of foreigners authorised to settle in France; the tightening of criteria for family reunification; the absence of automatic social assistance, including for legal immigrants, and very tight control of student immigration.
But in order to fit into the National Assembly’s calendar, Les Républicains have to wait for their next parliamentary ‘niche’ to propose their own bill. This will not happen for several weeks. Moreover, their chances of gathering majority support for their bill are quite slim.
