Paris Constitutional Council overturns large parts of immigration law

France’s new immigration law is a key plan for President Macron. Now the Constitutional Council has declared large parts of it inadmissible. But the government is probably fine with that.

France’s Constitutional Council has overturned a large part of a controversial new immigration law. As the Council in Paris decided, 32 of 86 articles had no sufficient connection to the actual proposed law. Some articles are also partially unconstitutional. President Emmanuel Macron could now put the plan into effect without the deleted articles.

According to its own statements, the government 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.

Opposition exerted influence on the text of the law

After an agonizing debate in parliament, the immigration law was only passed with the help of votes from the right-wing populist opposition and was also significantly tightened. French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist 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 the opposition’s votes for its projects.

Macron and numerous parliamentarians then presented the law to the Constitutional Council. The French Constitutional Council, similar to the German Federal Constitutional Court, reviews laws and projects for their legality.

Darmanin praises Government draft

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin welcomed the fact that the Constitutional Council had approved all the articles in the draft originally submitted by the government. Only articles that were later added in parliament were rejected. “Never before has a text provided for so many options for expelling criminals and so many requirements for the integration of foreigners!” he wrote on the online service X (formerly Twitter).

Critics see the immigration law as a violation of French values ​​and accuse the government of giving in to Marine Le Pen’s right-wing populist Rassemblement National in order to secure a majority. On Sunday, around 75,000 people demonstrated across the country against the law. There were also protests before the Constitutional Council’s decision.