After weeks of impasse, the far-right National Rally in France, led by Marine Le Pen, announced on Tuesday that it will support President Emmanuel Macron’s government’s centerpiece plan to tighten immigration regulations. This move will increase the likelihood that the law will pass parliament.
The measure, which typically tightens immigration regulations, is seen by the government as essential to taking the lead on immigration issues from the far right.
However, after the bill’s original submission, a number of changes have tightened the restrictions even more, with the left accusing the administration of giving in to pressure from the far right and advancing its agenda.
“We can rejoice in ideological progress, an ideological victory even for the National Rally (RN), since this is now enshrined into law as a national priority,” said the three-time presidential candidate Le Pen.
The RN had previously said it would vote against the bill or abstain.
The measure was referred to as a “toughening of immigration conditions” by Le Pen, who currently serves as the leader of the RN’s lawmakers in parliament but is widely anticipated to run for president again in 2027.
Her statement followed the approval of a revised bill draft by a commission made up of lower house National Assembly MPs and senators. The law had been rejected last week in the National Assembly without a vote, dealing a serious blow to Macron.
‘Moment of dishonour’
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, the ambitious 41-year-old who has spearheaded the legislation, had warned on Sunday that Le Pen risked winning the 2027 presidential election if the bill is not passed.
“An agreement has been reached by parliament on the immigration text,” Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The possibility of the measure passing has horrified the left, with Boris Vallaud, the leader of the socialist legislators in the National Assembly, characterizing it as a “great moment of dishonour for the government.”
It is now anticipated that the Senate and National Assembly would vote on the proposal one after the other on Tuesday night.
In addition to the RN and Macron’s alliance of centrist MPs headed by his Renaissance party, the right-wing Republicans will back the plan as well.
Macron’s team is worried that there might be a rebellion inside the cabinet, even though on paper the administration has the necessary numbers to enact the legislation.
Enacting the bill is also crucial for Macron, who will be too old to govern again in 2027 after two terms in office and is very conscious of not wanting to be viewed as a weakling with more than three years remaining in his final mandate.
Last week, opposition members from both the left and the right banded together to reject the draft without even discussing the proposed changes. After the elections in 2022, the administration does not hold a majority in parliament.
Over the past year, the administration has often passed legislation without a vote by invoking constitutional authorities, as demonstrated by the contentious pension reforms.
But this could also trigger a confidence motion that it could lose.
“The political crisis around the immigration bill is a moment of truth where all the fragilities of Emmanuel Macron’s mandate are coming together,” the Le Monde daily said in an editorial.
‘Regressive bill’
Numerous NGOS denounced what they called the possibility of the “most regressive” immigration bill in many years.
In a joint statement, over 50 organizations, including the French Human Rights League, called it “the most regressive bill of the past 40 years for the rights and living conditions of foreigners, including those who have long been in France.”
One important change is that immigrants’ social security payments are now contingent on their residency in France for five years, or thirty months if they are employed.
It is now possible to agree on migration quotas, and there are procedures in place for depriving dual-national criminals of their French nationality.
“With this text directly inspired by RN pamphlets against immigration, we are facing a shift in the history of the republic and its fundamental values,” said French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel.
France’s immigrant population is estimated at 5.1 million, or 7.6 percent of the population. Authorities believe there are between 600,000 to 700,000 undocumented immigrants in the country.