Immigration law: the right is up against the Constitutional Council

On the right, the decision does not pass. Several Republican figures went to war on Friday January 26 against the Constitutional Council, accused of a "coup d'état" for having censored a large part of the immigration law.

Possible Republican (LR) candidate for the 2027 presidential election, Laurent Wauquiez sounded the charge by denouncing "a coup d'état de j'état" on Thursday evening. The president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region even called into question the authority of the Constitutional Council, proposing that Parliament could have "the last word" despite censorship. 

Tighter access to social benefits for foreigners, annual migration quotas, tightening of family reunification criteria, "return deposit" for foreign students... most of the measures canceled Thursday by the Constitutional Council had been adopted in December under pressure from the right, a majority in the Senate and with the support of the extreme right.

Read alsoImmigration law: “half-hearted victory”, “fiasco”… The press is very critical

In the wake of Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Republicans Éric Ciotti vilified "a democratic hold-up" and accused Laurent Fabius of "collusion" with Emmanuel Macron to "obstruct the will of the French people who want less immigration" . 

The Constitutional Council is “not there to provide political services” but “a legal decision” which is binding on everyone, replied Laurent Fabius.

The former socialist Prime Minister recalled that the Council is not "guided by the polls" otherwise it would not have approved the pension reform last year, which then earned it strong criticism from the left.

The attacks from the right – and from the far right, Jordan Bardella (RN) speaking of a “coup d’état of judges” – were denounced by the rest of the political spectrum.

“The Republicans are no longer republicans or even Gaullists,” denounced the socialist Olivier Faure.

The only dissenting voice at LR, Xavier Bertrand, Laurent Wauquiez's potential competitor for 2027, said he was "in deep disagreement". 

“We can't attack the institutions. Because when political leaders heat everyone up, you risk having an end of mandate that could resemble that of Trump,” he warned. As for the majority, who had agreed to go under the caudine forks of LR to have a text, they attacked the right-wing elected officials who behaved like "nickel-plated feet" and "blackmailers" during the parliamentary discussion to “force the vote” on measures despite multiple warnings of a risk of unconstitutionality.

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THE DEBATE © FRANCE 24

Thirty-five amendments rejected                     

Triumphant after the adoption of the law, the right and the far right are all the more furious that the Council censored only three articles on the merits, but 32 others because they had no place in the scope of this text.

“How dare we pretend that there is no link between immigration and family reunification?” said the leader of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau.

This case law regarding "legislative riders", these amendments rejected because they were judged to have no direct or indirect link with the initial bill, "goes back several decades", defended Laurent Fabius.

LR and RN hoped that the Council would cancel some of these measures on substantive grounds to be able to justify their argument that migration policy cannot be modified without a revision of the Constitution. 

Because, as Laurent Fabius pointed out, nothing now prevents Parliament from voting again in due form on these controversial measures and "at that time, we will say what we think on the merits".

“The government must resubmit a text in accordance with the agreement” reached in December between LR and the majority, requested the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, on Friday. 

But the executive "will not present a bill", warned Gérald Darmanin. The Head of State should promulgate the text on Saturday and the Minister of the Interior summoned the prefects this Friday to give them his first instructions in terms of controls, expulsions and regularizations.

The final text in fact retains the structure initially desired by the government, with a large component of simplification of procedures for expelling delinquent foreigners.

The article on the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage, which had crystallized the debates in the fall, was also validated.

Also read: The theory of the pull of air, a “myth” at the heart of immigration law

With AFP

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