France's Sénat starts on Monday, November 6, to debate a hugely controversial immigration bill that the government says will bolster security for documented migrants but that opponents see as new evidence of a lurch to the right by President Emmanuel Macron.
Left-wingers reject the bill's bid to expel more people and toughen conditions for undocumented migrants, while conservatives' hackles have been raised by provisions to regularise the situation of undocumented workers in sectors with labor shortages. It is the right flank that poses the biggest obstacle to Macron and his minority centrist government passing the legislation. Conservative MPs' votes will be needed to get the bill through the lower house of parliament, the Assemblée Nationale, while the right has a majority in the upper house, the Sénat.
"This text is about firmness," Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Sunday, drawing on language meant to appeal to the conservative Les Républicains (LR) party. He vowed to "find a way to get (the bill) through parliament". But several attempts to get LR on board over the past year have fallen flat and there is little sign that this time will be different.
"We can't have a bill that wants both to expel more people and regularise more people," Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the Sénat conservatives, told Agence France-Presse. He said any easing up of immigration law would be a "sign of weakness".
Macron proposed broadening constitutional rules governing the type of social issues like immigration that can be put to referendum. The bone thrown towards the right has so far had little visible effect on rhetoric around the immigration bill.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday rebuffed claims that regularising undocumented workers would create a "pull effect" and increase migration. Regularisations would benefit "people who've been on our territory for years, who are well integrated, who've been working for years", she told France Inter radio. The bill aims "to more quickly remove those who shouldn't be here and at the same time to better integrate those who should remain", Borne said.
She nevertheless revealed continuing divisions within government when she opposed removing state medical aid for undocumented people, calling it "a question of public health". Darmanin has said he plans to "eliminate" the aid, replacing it only with cover for emergencies – calling it a step towards "a good compromise" with LR.
Protest planned
Such talk, along with plans for annual migration quotas set by parliament and restrictions on allowing people to rejoin their families already in France, has drawn opposition from aid groups and left-leaning politicians. A protest was planned on Monday outside the Sénat building located in Paris' Luxembourg gardens.
Debate around immigration was stoked in France over the summer by mass arrivals in Italy and a visit by Pope Francis to the southern French port city Marseille, where he urged people to welcome migrants. Last month's killing of a teacher by a Russian migrant with apparent jihadist beliefs has further ramped up the pressure.
Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party sees opportunity in its pet theme dominating political debate ahead of next year's European elections and in the long climb to the 2027 presidential election, when Macron cannot run again due to term limits. The immigration bill was "a botched job", RN vice-president Sebastien Chenu told RTL radio on Sunday – while saying the party's 80 MPs could vote for it in the hope of "small results".