After the shock caused by the adoption on December 19 of the compromise with the votes of the National Rally (RN), it’s time for reaction.
First in the streets: more than 400 groups, associations, unions and political parties, including several organizations of undocumented immigrants, La France insoumise (LFI) and the Solidarity union, are calling for a demonstration this Sunday against this text that “takes up many ideas from the far right, such as national preference”. Thirty rallies are planned, including in Paris, at 3pm, on the Place de la République, in Marseille, Lyon, and Montpellier. In the southwest, three events have been scheduled: in La Rochelle, at 10am, at the Pallice market, in Hendaye, at 11am, in front of the administrative detention center, and in Bordeaux, at 2pm, on the Place de la Bourse.
“The withdrawal of the law is possible but pressure must come from the mobilization,” argued Denis Godard, a leader of the March of Solidarity.
A second demonstration on January 21st
Another event: more than 200 personalities – actors, writers, journalists, as well as the general secretaries of the CFDT Marylise Léon and the CGT Sophie Binet – are calling for a demonstration on Sunday, January 21st against a law “written at the behest of hate merchants”.
The mobilization against this text “goes beyond the usual scope of associations concerned with the subject”, notes Delphine Rouilleault, general manager of France terre d’asile, who wants to defend “another vision of solidarity” on January 21st. An expansion of welcome opposition, especially as Gabriel Attal’s arrival at Matignon is not going to “change the government’s position in any way,” she believes.
However, several hundred organizations wrote to the new Prime Minister when he was appointed on Tuesday, demanding a “clarification” of his migration policy. Pascal Brice, president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS), said that its member organizations have “frozen political contacts” and no longer participate in any working meetings with the authorities.
“A law that is extremely aggressive on the rights of foreigners, posing enormous constitutional problems”
The previous Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne had committed, during negotiations with the right, to carry out a reform of the State Medical Aid reserved for undocumented immigrants, to exclude this discussion from the immigration law.
“The Minister of the Interior has not changed”, and the government “is still waiting for the Constitutional Council to do the work it did not want to do by letting a text full of constitutional horrors be adopted”, Delphine Rouilleault said.
This is also where the battle is being fought. A coalition of legal experts, academics, and association leaders have submitted a barrage of “external contributions” to the Constitutional Council, which must rule on January 25th after being seized by President Emmanuel Macron himself and the left-wing opposition.
Total or partial censorship?
“This is a law that is extremely aggressive on the rights of foreigners, posing enormous constitutional problems,” explains Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, who coordinated this initiative. In total, with the various challenges of the Sages, 47 of the 86 articles of the law are contested.
“We are calling for the total censorship of the text, but the most likely outcome is that the Constitutional Council will censure entire sections added by the Senate [Ed. National Assembly: under right-wing control] that have no relation to the law,” anticipates Serge Slama.
For him, it is “almost certain” that the Sages “will bury all the provisions on nationality, students, and social protection,” which are among the most controversial additions to the text. For example, they introduce a five-year residency requirement for non-working foreigners to access certain social benefits, or the end of automatic acquisition of French nationality at majority age for people born in France to foreign parents.
