The Sages on Thursday rejected more than a third of the government’s bill, enriched with firm measures obtained by the right. But the censored articles could resurface through new bills or a proposed constitutional reform.
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A mixed victory for opponents of the immigration law. The Constitutional Council censored more than a third of the articles in the bill on Thursday January 25. Three of them are partially or totally rejected on the merits on the grounds of their unconstitutionality, including the establishment of migration quotas set by Parliament. Furthermore, 32 others are judged to have no sufficient link with the text, including the tightening of access to social benefits, family reunification or the establishment of a “return deposit” for foreign students. These are what we call “legislative riders.”
The decision of the Sages was acclaimed by a large number of opponents of the text, from the left to left-wing associations and unions. Amnesy International thus welcomed “a victory”while the CGT celebrated “excellent news for our democracy and our Republic”. Conversely, for Les Républicains, most of whose firmness measures obtained from the majority have been censored, the news is a snub. This is’“a capitulation” for France, protested in a joint press release the party boss Eric Ciotti, the president of the group in the Senate Bruno Retailleau and his counterpart in the Assembly, Olivier Marleix.
A bill which takes up the censored measures
However, the latter have not said their last word. With the exception of three articles, the Constitutional Council censored the text without ruling on the substance: the “legislative riders” can therefore be the subject of another bill. This was not lost on Republican officials. In their joint press release, they ask the government to “resume as quickly as possible in a specific legislative text all the provisions invalidated by the Constitutional Council as ‘legislative riders'”.
Without waiting, the LR’s ally in the Senate, Hervé Marseille, president of the centrist group, himself announced that he would table a bill incorporating “a large part” censored articles. “They were adopted by the Assembly and the Senate, I want to believe that they can be adopted again”, he assured AFP. With this technique, the right hopes in particular to save measures such as the reinstatement of the offense of illegal residence, the “return deposit” for foreign students, measures restricting family reunification or measures restricting land rights. It remains to find a majority.
The return of the referendum on immigration
Furthermore, the decision of the Sages gives new arguments to the right and the far right to relaunch their proposal for a constitutional reform. “A small caste (…) confiscates popular sovereignty. The only solution to get out of these blockages (…) is to carry out a major constitutional reform approved by referendum”thus estimated Eric Ciotti on BFMTV Friday, after denouncing a “democratic hold-up” of the Constitutional Council. THURSDAY, Marine Le Pen, for her part, estimated that “this very broad censorship” confirmed that “only a reform of the Constitution will allow[it] to respond to migration issues.
By reforming the Constitution, the right and the far right wish in particular to give France the possibility of deviating from European rules on immigration. But also broaden the referendum to migration issues. During his parliamentary niche, in December, LR had also carried a text including these two points, before withdrawing it, for lack of having enough votes to hope to pass it. Even if it means proposing it again today? “There will probably be an initiative of this nature,” confirms a tenor from LR Figaro.