(Paris) French President Emmanuel Macron promulgated on Friday the immigration law widely censored by the Constitutional Council accused by the right of having committed a “legal coup”.
The text, of which 35 articles were totally or partially revised, was published in the Official Journal on Saturday, the first instructions for application having already been presented to the prefects.
Tighter access to social benefits, annual migratory quotas, tightening of family reunification criteria, etc.: the Constitutional Council, responsible for ruling on the conformity of laws with the Constitution, has censored numerous measures adopted under pressure from the right , with the support of the extreme right.
The final text nevertheless retains the structure initially desired by the government, with a large part 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, continues in the text validated by the Constitutional Council.
PHOTO ALAIN JOCARD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Republicans (right) however denounced a “democratic hold-up” and “a legal coup d’état” by the members of this Council.
A “very worrying” questioning of the institutions, reacted the president of the institution Laurent Fabius on the France 5 channel Friday evening, highlighting a purely “legal” decision.
Possible Republican (LR) candidate for the 2027 presidential election, Laurent Wauquiez sounded the charge a few hours after the Sages’ decision, proposing that Parliament could have “the last word”, after the Constitutional Council.
“A democratic hold-up”
“This is what a government wanted to do in Israel,” underlined Mr. Fabius in reference to an attempt at reform by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, invalidated by the Supreme Court.
In the wake of Mr. Wauquiez, the president of the Republicans Éric Ciotti vilified “a democratic hold-up” and accused Mr. Fabius of “collusion” with Emmanuel Macron against the “will of the French people who want less immigration”.
The attacks from the right – and from the far-right National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, speaking of a “judges’ coup” – were denounced by the rest of the political spectrum.
Triumphant after the adoption of the law in December, the right and the far right hoped that the Council would annul certain measures in substance in order to justify the need for a constitutional revision to modify migration policy.
Nothing now prevents Parliament from properly voting on these controversial measures again and “at that time, we will say what we think on the merits,” noted Mr. Fabius.
The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains) also urged the government to “resubmit a text consistent with the agreement” between LR and the majority.
But Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin took the lead, assuring that the executive “will not present a bill” on the subject.
For his part, the coordinator of France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) Manuel Bompard requested the withdrawal of the law, judging that “the text validated by the Constitutional Council corresponds to the text rejected by the Assembly” and therefore did not “no legitimacy”.