The most crucial stage begins for the French government's immigration bill, which will be debated on the floor of the Assemblée Nationale from Monday, December 11. For two weeks, MPs will be debating the bill put forward by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, which aims to speed up procedures for reviewing asylum applications, facilitate deportations of those foreigners deemed to be dangerous and simplify the regularization of undocumented workers in sectors facing recruitment difficulties. Nearly 26,000 amendments have been tabled.

On Monday, however, the government will first need to overcome a hurdle: The Greens parliamentary group has tabled a preliminary motion of rejection, which has raised concerns among Macron's supporters, as it exposes the bill to the risk of being rejected before it can even been debated.

The interior minister, who has made this text into his own personal political battle, succeeded in obtaining a favorable vote in the Sénat, where the right has the majority, at the beginning of November, then in the Assemblée's law commission, on December 2. These victories were achieved at the cost of many compromises that undermined the integrity of the bill, which was made considerably tougher in the hope of reaching a deal with the right.

For several weeks now, Darmanin has been focusing his communication on the measures relating to deporting those foreigners deemed to be dangerous, in particular by lifting the protection afforded to those who arrived in France before the age of 13 or who have resided in France for more than 20 years. According to the Interior Ministry, this would mean that an additional 4,000 foreigners per year could be deported.

This was a direct response to the October 13 murder of a teacher in Arras by an Islamic terrorist from the Caucasus. After this event, the minister has been repeating his argument: If his bill had already been voted, it would have enabled the terrorist – who arrived on French soil before he was 13 – to be deported. A questionable assertion.

"Gérald Darmanin is playing God in a weakened democracy, in a fractured country. With him, the government has made it possible to have this unfettered debate on immigration," criticized Boris Vallaud, leader of the Socialist MPs, at a time when the left is struggling to make itself heard on the migration issue. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen, president of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) group in the Assemblée, boasted on conservative news channel CNews on Sunday that her party was now "the center of gravity for political ideas in France."

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