Marine Le Pen’s kiss of death has wreaked havoc on the ranks of Emmanuel Macron, who is left even more fragile for the three and a half years he must remain in the Elysée. The approval in Parliament of the new immigration law, on Tuesday night, was already a very hard bone to gnaw on for the president’s supporters, forced to accept a text imposed largely by the right. But the fact that the 88 deputies of the National Regroupment (RN, extreme right) decided on the last day that they would also vote for it was a very hard moral blow, one of the most uncomfortable situations that can be remembered in French politics in decades.
Some could not bear the stigma of such a symbolic law contaminated by Le Pen’s party. A quarter of the deputies of the groups that support the president did not vote for it or abstained. There was talk of the resignation of up to seven left-wing ministers. In the end, only that of the head of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, was finalized. But the crisis may not have closed.
Macron, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and the head of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, leave the experience very touched. They have shown again, for many months, that they are unable to build consensus, although it is true that the rivals have not helped. The result has been a legislative mess with an uncertain future. Borne herself acknowledged yesterday, only hours after the white smoke in the National Assembly (349 votes in favor and 186 against), that some key aspects of the new law are unconstitutional and, almost certainly, the Constitutional Council will delete or amend them. Macron thinks the same.
The law is one of cold and one of hot. It includes tough measures against irregular immigrants, limits on social benefits for those who are in France legally, especially those who do not work, for example many single mothers. The principle of national preference has been established, in part; that is to say, that French citizens have certain privileges over foreigners. The sacrosanct right to land is also nuanced. Children born in France to immigrants will not have automatic nationality when they turn 18. They will have to request it expressly and it will be verified if they meet the requirements.
On the side of generosity, on the other hand, a device is being expanded to regularize immigrants – between 7,000 and 10,000 more each year – who already work in sectors with a labor shortage, such as gastronomy, construction or the agricultural sector .
The more than thirty departments governed by the left, as well as the municipality of Paris, announced that they would not apply some of the restrictions on the rights of foreigners provided for in the law.
Le Pen would have liked a much tougher law. Nevertheless, he gave the order to vote for it because “it is an ideological victory for the RN”. The extreme right thinks that the other parties are starting to apply the program that it has been defending for many years. This phrase of “ideological victory” is what has done the most damage to the Macronists, who have managed to beat Le Pen twice (2017 and 2022). They are not so sure, the way things are going, that this will happen again in 2027. Having only a relative parliamentary majority is very complex. According to Le Figaro, Macron shows “persistent blindness” to this.
In a talk on television, last night, the president showed “a lot of respect” for his deputies in the face of a difficult decision and emphasized that it is necessary to assume “the responsibilities” and “calm the spirits” in the face of inaccurate perceptions. Macron said that what has been approved in France “is a complement” to what the EU has just agreed. The Head of State admitted that there are things he does not like, such as demanding a bond from foreign students. He believes this discourages talent acquisition. Despite everything, he insisted that the law “is useful”. “It is not a text that disgraces us”, he had said during the Council of Ministers. For him, Le Pen’s use of the situation is “a rude maneuver” that is not based on real facts. Macron reminded that he has three and a half years left, and he will do things. “I will not stop”, he emphasized
