Macron defends new French migration law despite political tensions

By Michel Rose and Tassilo Hummel

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday defended a bill to toughen immigration laws despite an embarrassing parliamentary vote that put his ruling alliance on the same side as Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement national party.

The legislation, approved by both houses late on Tuesday, was initially good news for the centrist president, who made the migration bill a key plank of his second mandate and might otherwise have had to shelve it.

But the support of Le Pen’s opposition party for the bill surprised Macron, prompting him on Wednesday to accuse Le Pen of political opportunism and to add in a television interview: “That was a shoddy move.”

Just six months before European Parliament elections in which immigration will be key, the bill’s adoption could boost Marine Le Pen who called the rejigged bill “a great ideological victory” for her far-right party.

An Elabe poll for BFM TV showed 70% of the French backed the new bill, including 87% of Macron’s supporters.

But in a sign Le Pen had won the battle of narratives in public opinion, the same poll showed 73% thought her party’s ideas had inspired the bill.

COUNCIL COULD STRIKE DOWN MEASURES

Macron will refer the bill to the Constitutional Council for checks on whether it complies with the French constitution before he would sign it into law. The council could strike down some of the tougher measures if it deems them unconstitutional.

The conservative Les Republicains, who partnered with his ruling alliance on that bill and have over the years hardened their discourse closer to that of the far-right, also claimed victory, saying the bill was essentially theirs.

The bill underscored Macron’s difficulties governing without a parliamentary majority, which he lost last year, as well as the rightward shift in much of Europe as governments try to curb the rise of the far-right by being tougher on immigration.

“This bill will help us fight against what feeds the Rassemblement national,” Macron said in the TV interview. “Our fellow citizens tell us we don’t control illegal immigration well enough.”

He said there were measures in the bill he didn’t like, such as the fact foreign students will need to present a refundable deposit. He said that could be reworked.

“My work here is not done. I still have 3-1/2 years ahead of me. I can assure you, I won’t stop now,” he said.

The tougher rules – including migration quotas, making it harder for immigrants’ children to become French citizens, and delaying migrants’ access to welfare benefits – were added to the bill to win the support of right-wing lawmakers.

The bill makes it easier to expel undocumented migrants, while watering down plans to loosen curbs over residency permits for workers in labour-deprived sectors.

Those conditions caused unease among Macron’s more left-leaning lawmakers, and dozens either abstained or gave it the thumbs-down in a vote on Tuesday.

Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau resigned in protest over the immigration bill. “It’s not possible for me to defend this text,” Rousseau, a former Communist, told Le Monde daily.

The rebellion within the government seemed to be contained as all the other left-wing ministers were present at a weekly cabinet meeting that Rousseau skipped and no other resignation had materialised by Wednesday evening.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne rejected talk of a crisis in Macron’s camp.

“We’ve done our job, we wanted a text with useful measures that our citizens were calling for,” she said, adding: “Now let’s move on.”

UNEASE IN PARLIAMENT

But Brittany lawmaker Jean-Charles Larsonneur told France Bleu radio he was leaving the centrist Horizons group, part of Macron’s alliance, saying the law breached “republican values.”

Even the lower house of parliament’s president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, who voted in favour of the bill, told BFM TV she was “terribly bothered” by some of its content, in particular delaying access to welfare benefits for migrants with children.

The rebels in Macron’s party could further weaken his hold on parliament and complicate the rest of his five-year mandate.

Macron won his two presidential mandates in 2017 and 2022 after voters rallied behind him to bar Le Pen from winning, and left-wing MPs said the rejigged migration bill was a betrayal of promises made to fend off right-wing ideas.

According to statistics office INSEE, the immigration share of France’s population has been growing steadily.

The number of immigrants – people living in France but born abroad – stood at 5% in 1946, reaching 7.4% in 1975 and 8.5% in 2010, to just over 10% of the population, or 2.5 million people, in 2022. About a third have become French.

Other governments across Europe have also opted for tougher migration policies. The European Union itself reached an agreement on Wednesday to reshape its migration and asylum rules with the aim to limit the number of incoming migrants.

In the Netherlands, the far-right’s Geert Wilders topped elections last month after the previous government collapsed over immigration. In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing deep divisions within his party over asylum policies.

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