Marine Le Pen's kiss of death has wreaked havoc in the ranks of Emmanuel Macron, who is 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 nut to crack for the president's supporters, forced to accept a text largely imposed by the right. But the fact that the 88 deputies of the National Rally (RN, extreme right) decided on the last day that they also voted for him was a very hard moral blow, one of the most embarrassing situations 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 from the groups that support the president did not vote for it or abstained. There was talk of the resignation of up to seven ministers from the left wing. In the end, only that of the head of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, was finalized. But the crisis may not have ended.
Macron, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and the head of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, come away very touched by the experience. They have shown again, for long months, that they are incapable of building consensus, although it is true that rivals have not helped. The result has been a legislative botch with an uncertain future. Borne herself acknowledged yesterday, just 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 eliminate them or will amend. Macron thinks the same.
The law is one of lime and another of sand. 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, French citizens have some privileges over foreigners. The sacrosanct right of the ground is also qualified. Children born in France to immigrants will not have automatic nationality upon turning 18. They will have to request it expressly and it will be verified if they meet the requirements. On the side of generosity, however, a device is 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 rights for foreigners provided for by the law.
Le Pen would have liked a much tougher law. However, 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 beginning to apply the program that they have been defending for many years. That phrase of “ideological victory” is what has hurt the Macronists the most, who on two occasions (2017 and 2022) managed to beat Le Pen. They are not so sure, as things are going, that this will be repeated in 2027. Having only a relative parliamentary majority is very complex. According to Le Figaro, Macron shows “persistent blindness” to this.
In a television gathering last night, the president showed “a lot of respect” for his deputies in the face of a difficult decision and stressed that “responsibilities” must be assumed and “spirits calmed” in the face of inaccurate perceptions. Macron said that what was approved in France “is a complement” to what the EU has just agreed upon. The head of state admitted that there are things that he does not like, such as requiring a deposit from foreign students. He believes that this discourages recruiting talent. Despite everything, he insisted that the law “is useful.” “It is not a text that dishonors us,” he had said during the Council of Ministers. For him, Le Pen's instrumentalization of the situation is “a rude maneuver” that is not based on real facts. Macron recalled that he has three and a half years left and he is going to do things. “I'm not going to stop,” he stressed.
