At least one minister has already resigned after the adoption of the immigration law. The majority has divided. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally claims an “ideological victory”.
The adoption of the immigration law by the French Parliament will leave its mark. At least one minister has already submitted his resignation, this is the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau, without it being known whether it had been accepted. Several other ministers unfavorable to the textlike Clément Beaune (Transport), Patrice Vergriete (Housing) or Sylvie Retailleau (Higher Education), were received in the evening at Matignon.
Mr. Vergriete and Ms. Retailleau, who disagreed with the text, also had “put their resignation in the balance” Tuesday after the rally of the RN, according to a ministerial source.
After 18 months of twists and turns around this flammable bill, the Assembly voted for it with 349 votes for and 186 votes against, out of 573 voters, Republicans and National Rally adding their votes to that of the majority. The latter was divided: it missed 59 votes, out of 251 deputies, between votes against and abstentions.
The Senate, dominated by the right and the center, had adopted by 214 against 114 the text resulting from the long and painful negotiations of the Joint Joint Commission, conclave of seven senators and seven deputies dominated by the right.
On X, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin welcomed the adoption of a text “strong and firm”, “without the votes of (88) RN deputies”. “The majority united, the RN maneuver failed”said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, for her part, seeming to ignore the defection of nearly a quarter of her deputies.
An “ideological victory” for Marine Le Pen
The leader of France Insoumise (radical left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part denounced a “sickening victory” acquired on the contrary thanks to the voices of the extreme right. “A new political axis has been established”, he reacted on X.
The text would in fact still have been adopted if the far-right parliamentarians had abstained. However, the result would have been different if they had voted against.
In the hemicycle, Gérald Darmanin praised a text deserving to be voted on “for the protection of the French”for the “regularization of undocumented workers”, “for the simplification of our law.
He virulently attacked the left, accusing it of having betrayed the “moral” in “begging for the votes of the RN” – a way of taking revenge on Nupes, whose rejection motion, voted for by the right and the RN, had brutally ended the debates on this text last week in the Assembly hemicycle. Plunging the macronie into last chance negotiations with the right.
Gérald Darmanin also strongly attacked the RN, which decided at the last minute to vote for the bill, accusing it of making a “little shot” policy to embarrass the majority, even though he had until now rejected it.
The left never stopped pointing out in the text “a law directly inspired by Jean-Marie Le Pen’s program”the founder of the National Front: “national preference in social benefits, loss of nationality, questioning of land law”, listed the president of the LFI group, Mathilde Panot.
The RN applauded these speeches in the hemicycle, rejoicing at its “ideological victory”as Marine Le Pen said earlier in the day.
“This evening, if the deputies of the National Rally voted against, this text would not pass contrary to the lies uttered by Mr. Darmanin. It is a total victory for the ideas defended by Marine Le Pen.”, welcomed far-right MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy.
The head of environmentalist deputies Cyrielle Chatelain castigated Emmanuel Macron who “buried the excess”. “He betrayed his voters. The only mandate given to the president was to block the extreme right and he allowed his ideas to be enshrined in law. she protested.
A sign of the unease in the majority, the president of the Law Commission, Sacha Houlié, voted against the bill. And the president of the MoDem group, Jean-Paul Mattei, abstained. “We are in the hands of the RN, we have lost on all counts” And Marine Le Pen “won everything”exasperated a Renaissance deputy.
In this heavy atmosphere, members of the government will meet for a Council of Ministers at the Elysée on Wednesday morning.