The French Constitutional Council has widely censored the immigration law, in particular measures aimed at toughening the government’s text adopted in December, under pressure from the right, which caused the presidential camp to sway.
A month after a chaotic adoption in Parliament, the nine “Wise Men” of the council responsible in particular for deciding on the conformity of the laws with the Constitution have rebutted most of the most criticized measures: tightening of access to social benefits for foreigners non-Europeans, annual migration quotas, tightening of family reunification criteria, student “return deposit”…
“The Constitutional Council validates the entire text of the government”, reacted the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin on parliamentary procedure.
A censorship which he expected – and which some within the executive partly hoped for – since by Mr. Darmanin’s own admission, several provisions (were) “manifestly and clearly contrary to the Constitution”.
Conversely, the president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, denounced “a coup by the judges, with the support of the President of the Republic himself”.
“The immigration law is stillborn. The only solution is a referendum on immigration,” insisted the head of a party which had hailed an “ideological victory” after the adoption of the text.
The decision of the Constitutional Council, scrutinized by associations defending undocumented immigrants as well as by all political forces in the country, reshuffles the cards, before the promulgation of the text by Emmanuel Macron.
Indeed, 35 of the 86 articles of the bill were totally or partially censored according to the decision consulted by AFP. The Council considered for the majority of them – 32, precisely – that they did not have their place within the scope of this text of law. These are “legislative riders”, which could however reappear later in other texts.
Unconstitutional migration quotas
A relief for some, including within the majority itself, of which 27 of the 248 deputies had opposed the text, while the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau, a member of the left wing of the government, resigned after its adoption.
“It’s a victory this evening,” the president of the NGO Amnesty International, Jean-Claude Samouiller, also reacted during an association gathering near the Constitutional Council. Associations, collectives, lawyers and unions had planned to denounce a text “seriously infringing on the rights of exiled people” at the Council in Paris on Thursday.
For the right-wing party Les Républicains (LR, opposition) and the National Rally, the broad censorship of numerous emblematic measures of the right and the extreme right risks relaunching the debate on a possible constitutional reform, constantly brandished by these parties on migration issues.
The coordinator of the La France Insoumise party (LFI, radical left), estimated that the law, “totally amputated” by censorship, had “no legitimacy” and should henceforth “be withdrawn” by the government.
Very controversial, the measure extending the length of residence required so that non-Europeans in a legal situation can benefit from certain social benefits (housing or family allowances, etc.) has thus been completely censored.
Ditto for the tightening of the criteria for family reunification (with a required length of residence increasing from 18 to 24 months), the establishment of a “return deposit” for foreign students or the end of the automaticity of land law for children of foreigners born in France.
The establishment of annual migration quotas determined by Parliament after a mandatory debate was deemed unconstitutional, which will set a precedent.
The bill nevertheless retains the structure initially desired by the government, with a large component of simplification of procedures for expelling delinquent foreigners, one of the objectives of Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
An article on the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage, which had crystallized the debates of the fall, is well validated by the Sages.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets again on Sunday against the law.