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“No to the migration law”: in Paris, thousands of people took to the streets against Macron’s law

Photo: Yoan Valat / EPA

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in France over the weekend against the controversial new immigration law.

The Interior Ministry said there were 75,000 protesters, while the unions said there were 150,000.

Over 100 rallies were planned in various cities, as the television station franceinfo reported on Sunday.

In Paris, several thousand people gathered near the Eiffel Tower.

Around 2,000 people protested in Lille and Caen, as well as in Metz.

On Saturday between 3,000 and 4,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Toulouse.

More than 200 celebrities, including writers, actors and journalists, called for the protest.

They want to put pressure on the government and hope to be able to stop the stricter immigration law that was passed in mid-December with the votes of the entire faction of the right-wing populist Rassemblement National (RN) party.

Last Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets against the law.

Protest organizers against a division in society

The new law pushed by President Emmanuel Macron was intended to better regulate migration and fundamentally improve integration.

However, under pressure from the conservative opposition party Les Républicains, on whose votes Macron's center camp depended to pass the law, the law was tightened.

It is not yet in force.

Since the government and Macron have constitutional doubts on some points, they submitted the law to the Constitutional Council.

He will announce on Thursday whether passages need to be improved.

Before the start of the demonstration in Paris, left-wing politicians sharply criticized the government's plan.

The law has “opened the door for the ideas of the extreme right,” explained Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.

The new law stipulates, among other things, that non-EU foreigners in France can only receive some social benefits after five years of residence.

"As we are concerned with unification and solidarity rather than an endless division of our society, we call on the President of the Republic not to pass this law," says the protest organization's call.

czl/dpa/AFP