For Emmanuel Macron, time will tell if this is a Pyrrhic victory. After a week of negotiations, cajoling and threats, Parliament definitively approved the immigration law after a vote in the Assembly a little after 11 p.m. on Tuesday evening. And if Gérald Darmanin had a smile, the presidential majority fractured in the face of the right-wing of a text ultimately supported by the right, but also the extreme right.
In the end, the Assembly voted for it with 349 votes for and 186 votes against, out of 573 voters, LR and RN adding their votes to that of the majority. The latter was divided: it missed 59 votes, out of 251 deputies, between votes against (27) and abstentions (32).
“A new political axis”, denounces Mélenchon
On X, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin welcomed the adoption of a “strong and firm” text, “without the votes of (88) RN deputies”. “The majority united, the RN maneuver failed,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, seeming to ignore the defection of nearly a quarter of her deputies.
The leader of France Insoumise (radical left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part denounced a “sickening victory” acquired on the contrary thanks to the voices of the extreme right. “A new political axis has been established,” he reacted on X.
Who is right? It depends. If the 88 RN deputies had voted against, the text would have been rejected by 274 votes to 261. But if they had abstained, the calculation would no longer have been based on 535 votes cast but on 447 (535-88), i.e. a majority of 224. With 261 votes in favor, the text would therefore have been adopted.
The Minister of Health resigns
Marine Le Pen was not mistaken, rejoicing in the “ideological victory” of the RN. The president of the LR, Eric Ciotti, welcoming a “historic victory for the right”, called on the majority “in crisis”, to “take into account” the fact that the Republicans had allowed “in substance and form” adoption of this text”. “Let her finally understand that at the same time is impotence.”
A sign of the unease in the majority, the president of the Law Commission, Sacha Houlié, voted against the bill. And the president of the MoDem group, Jean-Paul Mattei, abstained.
The slump also affects the government: the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau presented his resignation to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, without us knowing during the night whether it had been accepted. Several ministers unfavorable to the text, such as Clément Beaune (Transport), Patrice Vergriete (Housing) or Sylvie Retailleau (Higher Education), were received in the evening at Matignon.
“It’s going to leave its mark. And not just in Parliament. I don’t think we realize the repercussions yet. Colleagues broke down physically (…) Not learning from the episode we have just experienced would be difficult,” said a majority executive after the vote. “We are in the hands of the RN, we have lost on all counts” and Marine Le Pen “won everything”, exasperated a Renaissance MP.