The French government has suffered a defeat on the controversial issue of migration. The National Assembly rejected the draft immigration law. Interior Minister Darmanin offered to resign, but President Macron refused.
The National Assembly in Paris has initially rejected the draft for a controversial immigration law. A corresponding motion from the Greens was approved with a narrow majority and with support from the left, the right and the right-wing populists. According to the Elysée Palace, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin then offered his resignation, which President Emmanuel Macron rejected.
On the TF1 channel, Darmanin admitted defeat: “It is of course a defeat because I want to provide the police, gendarmes, prefects and judges with the means to combat irregular immigration,” he said. The legal text will continue its institutional path, emphasized Darmanin. He gave three options: a stop to the bill, a new reading in the Senate or referral to a committee in both chambers of parliament.
The left and the right-wing populist party Rassemblement National (RN) welcomed the rejection of the bill. RN politician Marine Le Pen was “delighted” with the result. MPs from the left spectrum called on Darmanin to resign.
The government says it wants to use the proposed law to control immigration and improve integration. To this end, she wants to give migrants who previously worked without residence documents in jobs with a staff shortage a temporary residence permit. At the same time, the government wants to be able to force some previously protected migrants to leave the country and expand deportations.
Macron government without its own majority
Macron’s center camp has no longer had an absolute majority in the French National Assembly since the parliamentary elections in June 2022 and is therefore dependent on votes from the opposition for their projects. The fact that a majority has now emerged against the government camp is a blow for them. Interior Minister Darmanin had previously tried to get the bourgeois camp on his side, both with pithy words and with concessions such as a reform of medical care for irregular migrants.
After the vote in the National Assembly, the three factions of the presidential camp (Renaissance, MoDem, Horizons) called not to withdraw the rejected draft immigration law, but to continue the legislative process “as quickly as possible.” “This text is necessary and expected by the French,” said a joint statement.
Prime Minister Borne has already made it clear that she does not want to use constitutional paragraph 49.3, which would allow the law to be passed without a final vote by MPs. The government would probably survive a subsequent motion of no confidence, but would risk damage to its image in the process. For Macron, the immigration law reform is the second major reform project after the pension reform.