Marine Le Pen announced on Tuesday she would back Emmanuel Macron’s flagship immigration Bill after he agreed to provide benefits to migrants only after five years of residency.
She said the French president’s concession meant the Bill was an “ideological victory” for her hard-Right National Rally (RN) party. Legal migrants currently receive state benefits after six months.
The RN had previously said it would vote against the Bill or abstain.
Ms Le Pen, who now leads the RN’s lawmakers in parliament but is widely expected to stand again for president in 2027, described the legislation as a “toughening of immigration conditions”.
“We can rejoice in ideological progress, an ideological victory even for the National Rally, since this is now enshrined into law as a national priority,” said the three-time presidential candidate.
Her support meant the bill was likely pass on Tuesday night, as her party has 88 MPs in a National Assembly where Mr Macron’s centrist Renaissance group lacks an absolute majority.
MPs may feel uncomfortable
However, it places the Macron camp in an embarrassing quandary as many MPs may be uncomfortable approving a bill backed by Ms Le Pen.
Ms Le Pen’s bombshell came days after her party joined forces with the Left-wing opposition to reject an earlier version of the bill, which aims to clamp down on illegal immigration and speed up asylum requests while granting stay permits to illegal workers in sectors with labour shortages.
The rejection was a major blow to Mr Macron as commentators warned a second failure to pass it could leave him a lame duck.
However, since then it has been significantly toughened up by a mixed parliamentary commission dominated by the Macron camp and members of the opposition conservative Republicans party.
Mr Macron’s Renaissance group lacks an absolute parliamentary majority and thus requires ad hoc support for laws it tables from opposition MPs, notably the Republicans.
The two had been engaged in frantic talks since Monday. Agreement was finally reached this afternoon after the Macron side ceded to its demand to make social benefits contingent on five years’ residency in the country, or 30 months for those who work.
The other key measure grants state prefects powers to hand out stay permits to illegal immigrants already working in sectors “under strain”, such as construction. It will not be open to those with a criminal record.
‘Firmness over foreign offenders’
Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, called the agreement “a good thing” as it contained “measures to protect the French, the necessary firmness with regard to foreign offenders, and fair measures such as the [historic] end to the detention of minors or regularisation for undocumented workers”.
The legislation was expected to be approved in successive votes on Tuesday evening in the Senate and then the National Assembly.
As well as the RN and Macron’s centrist MPs led by his Renaissance party, the bill will also be supported by the Right-wing Republicans.
Eric Ciotti, their leader, said that it was “thanks to our work and ideas, we are imposing this text”, calling it “a real turning point”.
But the Left said it was appalled at the prospect of the legislation being passed with Boris Vallaud, the head of Socialist MPs in the National Assembly, describing it as a “great moment of dishonour for the government”.
A group of 50 migrant rights groups, NGOs and unions called it the “most regressive in at least 40 years” in France that smacked of “unabashed xenophobia”.