Immigration law: opponents throw their last strength into the streets

Maximilien Carlier with AFP / Photo credit: Jc Milhet / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 1:53 p.m., January 21, 2024

Final pressure on the executive: four days before a long-awaited decision by the Constitutional Council, a broad coalition of opponents of the immigration law is calling for demonstrations on Sunday against the promulgation of a text which, according to them, enshrines the ideological victory of “the extreme right”.

By rallying behind the call initially launched by 201 personalities, the opponents hope to bring together beyond the traditional activist sphere to put pressure on the executive, which could quickly promulgate the text voted in mid-December, notably with the votes of the National Rally. , except complete and surprise censorship by the Sages on January 25.

>> READ ALSO - 

Nearly 2 billion euros per year: the Court of Auditors is interested in the costs of the fight against immigration

After the demonstration on January 14, during which thousands of people marched at the call of associations defending immigrants, more than 160 marches are planned for Sunday, including the one in Paris which must start at 2 p.m. from the square from the Trocadéro.

“Caring for unity and solidarity rather than endless division of our society, we ask the President of the Republic (Emmanuel Macron) not to promulgate this law”, write the authors of the appeal, including many personalities from the world of culture like the actresses Josiane Balasko and the writer Alice Zeniter.

For the signatories from all walks of life, including the general secretaries of the CFDT and the CGT Marylise Léon and Sophie Binet, the emergency physician Patrick Pelloux and the co-founder of Mediapart Edwy Plenel, the law "was written under the dictation of the merchants of hatred who dream of imposing their project of national preference on France.

“This law is inhumane”

In question, the numerous additions by Parliament to the government's initial text, giving a very right-wing color to a law which was initially to be based on two components, one repressive for "delinquent" foreigners, the other promoting integration.

The text now includes many controversial measures, such as tightening access to social benefits, establishing migration quotas, or reinstating the “crime of illegal residence”.

“The demonstrations of January 21 must demonstrate that public opinion is not with the racists and fascists,” urged the activist collective “Marche des solidarités”, on the front line in the streets for several weeks, on Friday.

Sunday morning, several hundred people gathered in Metz, according to an AFP journalist.

On Saturday, several hundred demonstrators, between 3,000 and 4,000 according to the organizers, marched through the streets of Toulouse.

“This law is inhumane (...) Society is always looking for scapegoats for its problems and I, who was welcomed by France, I come from Madagascar, I hope that this continues,” declared Mohamed Soidriddine, 64 years old, retired from the civil service, during the demonstration in Caen which brought together around 800 people on Sunday.

More than 300 elected left-wing and environmentalists also called, in the daily

, to demonstrate against a text consecrating the "cultural victory of the extreme right under the friendly exterior of 'at the same time'".

“This law flouts the principles of the French Revolution,” criticized the mayors, including the PS councilor of Lille, Martine Aubry.