Exit the measures restricting access to social benefits for non-Europeans, conditioned in the law on a period of residence, such as those relating to nationality, the establishment of a deposit for foreign students or restrictions placed on family reunion. The text has been cut by 40% of its content.
Gérald Darmanin satisfied
The reactions were quick. The right and the far right immediately stepped up to denounce this censorship, considered “political” by Eric Ciotti, the president of LR, or as a “coup de force” by Jordan Bardella, the president of the RN. Both have returned to the charge to obtain a modification of the Constitution and the holding of a referendum on immigration. The main measures contained in the law, including those which were censored, were overwhelmingly supported by public opinion.
Gérald Darmanin wants to show that this law will be useful. Invited to the 20 Hours of TF1 on Thursday evening, he announced that he will bring together the prefects this Friday in Beauvau to pass several instructions: take over the files of delinquent migrants, strengthen the fight against immigration networks, definitively put an end to the presence of minors in administrative detention centers (CRA) and implement the measure to regularize undocumented workers in professions in shortage.
Law promulgated “as quickly as possible”
The left welcomed the decision of the Constitutional Council while asking Emmanuel Macron not to promulgate the law. “The Constitutional Council has just censored more than a third of the immigration law. He reminds us that the worst racist delusions of Macron and Le Pen are contrary to our republican principles. The law is completely amputated. It has no legitimacy. It must be withdrawn,” said Manuel Bompard, national coordinator of France Insoumise (LFI), on X.
In vain, since Gérald Darmanin logically announced Thursday evening that the law will be promulgated “as quickly as possible”, after more than a year of a complicated process.
The government is reassured, but the episode risks leaving its mark. On the left wing of the majority, the damage has been done since the RN deputies voted for the text, to everyone’s surprise. Above all, the decision of the Constitutional Council risks straining relations between the presidential majority and LR a little more: the compromise passed in Parliament was undermined by the Constitutional Council and the prospect of a modification of the Constitution, as demanded by LR with insistence, does not appear in Emmanuel Macron’s agenda, any more than a referendum.
Thursday evening, LR requested a new law to take over the censored provisions, but Gérald Darmanin immediately closed the door.
LR se braque
Already burned by a new government which has, once again, hunted on its lands with the arrival of Catherine Vautrin and Rachida Dati and which leans to the right in view of the European elections, LR will be less and less inclined to compromise with the majority, believing to have been duped on this text. In the end, things went badly between the majority and the right on the two most important texts at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s second term: pensions and immigration.
Gérald Darmanin dismissed these criticisms: the LR “knew full well” that certain provisions were unconstitutional and, at Place Beauvau, the LR deputies were sent back to their vote on the rejection motion, which prevented the debate in the National Assembly. “The Constitutional Council validated measures introduced by the Senate which did more serious and deeper parliamentary work,” supported Gérald Darmanin, not forgetting to (re)put a wedge between the deputies and the LR senators.