Blow of pressure on the Executive four days before a highly anticipated decision in the Constitutional Council. A broad coalition of opponents of the immigration law demonstrates throughout France this Sunday, January 21, against the promulgation of the text, which they consider a victory for the extreme right.
First modification:
3 min
Several thousand opponents of the immigration law took to the streets of Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lille and other cities in France on Sunday, January 21, to maintain pressure against the promulgation of a text that, according to them, enshrines ideological victory of the “extreme right” before the decision of the Constitutional Council scheduled for January 25.
By joining the call initially launched by 201 personalities, the opponents seek to gather forces beyond the traditional militant sphere to pressure the Executive, which could quickly enact the text voted in mid-December, which has the votes of the far-right Agrupación party National, unless there is a surprise 'stop' by the 'Wise Men' —as the members of the Constitutional Council are known—.
More than 160 marches were planned throughout France. Between 3,000 and 4,000 protesters, according to organizers, paraded through the streets of Toulouse on Saturday. While hundreds of people gathered in Metz on Sunday morning. In Caen, unions gathered between 1,500 and 2,000 protesters on Sunday morning.
In Lille, around 2,000 people demonstrated, led by workers from the Emmaüs del Norte communities, who have been on strike for six months to denounce their working conditions and request their regularization.
“Drifts towards the extreme right”
In the Parisian demonstration, which started early in the afternoon from the Place du Trocadero, thousands of people were present from the beginning of the day, with several leaders of the left.
Manon Aubry (Insumist France), Marine Tondelier (Ecologists), Fabien Roussel (French Communist Party) and Olivier Faure (Socialist Party) criticized an Executive “that has opened the doors to the ideas of the extreme right”, according to the first secretary of the socialists.
“We wanted to bring together a very broad public to show that the indignation goes beyond militant circles (…) This law is a break with French principles since 1789 for the right to land and since 1945 for the universality of protection social”, declared the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, who called for mobilization together with her CFDT counterpart, Marylise Léon.
Amid the banners held by protesters with messages such as “Immigration, an opportunity for France”, “France is a fabric of migration”; Mady Cissé, a 59-year-old Senegalese temporary construction worker, appreciates what he considered “important” but “also logical” support.
“We form a single society: without us, the country would not function, we are the ones who get up at 5:00 in the morning to go to work in construction, to take out the garbage… we even clean the prefectural offices that they deny us our papers,” observes the worker who has a temporary residence permit.
“This law is a drift towards the extreme right, in political terms,” observed the former minister of Rally for the Republic, Jacques Toubon, present in Paris, “and ultimately towards national preference, which is not in accordance with our fundamental principles and constitutional”.
A controversial text
The organizers, who include numerous personalities from the world of culture such as the actresses Josiane Balasko and the author Alice Zeniter, ask Emmanuel Macron not to promulgate the law.
At the center of the controversy are Parliament's numerous additions to the Government's initial text, which give a very right-wing bias to this law, which was initially supposed to be based on two aspects, one repressive for foreigners who committed “criminal acts”, and another that favored integration.
Now, the text includes numerous controversial measures, such as tightening access to social benefits, establishing immigration quotas or reinstating the “crime of irregular stay.”
“C'est une loi inique et presque illégitime ! On est en France, il ya une tradition de fraternité, d'accueil dans ce countries qui est bafouée ! C'est de l'électoralisme scandaleux.”
The appeal of 201 persons against immigration: Bruno Solo and Josiane Balasko in #CàVous pic.twitter.com/Bl1ZJ387Ve
— C à vous (@cavousf5) January 16, 2024
Interviewed on Sunday in the 'Political Questions' program broadcast simultaneously on 'France Inter', 'FranceinfoTV' and 'Le Monde', the Minister Delegate for Gender Equality, Aurore Bergé, denied that the text established “a national preference.”
The minister blamed her opponents for the rise of the National Rally, which is currently leading the polls for future European elections. “Insinuating the idea that we are adopting the theses and themes of the National Rally, it is certain, we are giving them an ideological victory,” she declared.
*Article adapted from its original in French
With AFP
#France #Opponents #immigration #law #toughen #criticism #enacted
