Since the pact seemed imminent in the joint commission with which the ruling party sought to save its initiative, aware of the concessions it would have to make to the right, criticism and accusations began against the executive of giving in to the most reactionary vision about of the immigration issue.
For the leader of the socialists, Olivier Faure, President Emmanuel Macron agreed to become a tribune of the National Rally (extreme right), despite the fact he was elected to block it.
Both in 2017 and last year, Macron surpassed Marine Le Pen in the runoff, supported by the various French political forces, grouped around a so-called republican front. Faure appealed to the conscience of the deputies, particularly the ruling party, to prevent in the National Assembly the adoption of a norm quite close to the one approved in the Senate, dominated by the conservatives, and far from the one presented by the government, which it was already questioned for its objective of imposing a heavy hand on migrants.
According to various reports, within the ranks of the government, both ministers and legislators, there is discomfort over the text that is markedly leaning towards the right, to the point that Le Pen, Macron’s sworn enemy, declared it an “ideological victory” for the National Rally and he announced that his deputies will vote in favor in the chamber.
The project establishes the crime of irregular stay, punishable by a fine, toughens the times to aspire to social support for resident foreigners, limits the government’s intention to regularize “undocumented” people who work in positions with a labor shortage in France and includes the rapid expulsion of those who are a risk of terrorism or crime.
Likewise, the executive promised to “review” the State Medical Aid to undocumented immigrants, which the conservatives sought to eliminate by replacing it with emergency assistance, and offered the opening of several immigration detention camps before 2026.
Also the top leader of environmentalists, Marine Tondelier, urged on social networks the participation of the “humanist deputies” to stop the initiative, believing that if it is finally approved, it will represent a drastic political turn.
Her co-religionist Sandrine Rousseau felt that members of the ruling party, Renaissance, should be ashamed.
For his part, the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, denounced a text inspired by the extreme right, overshadowing the fundamental values of the Republic.
From La France Insumise they called for “insubmission” against the immigration law, and its head of the bench in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot, announced the introduction of a motion to reject the project.
Dozens of associations that support migrants and defend human rights also reacted to the agreement of the mixed commission.
Among the criteria expressed is the consideration that the norm, which the Senate and the National Assembly must vote on in the evening, is “the most regressive of the last 40 years.
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