France’s Green Party intends to derail a government immigration bill that would introduce mandatory language tests and fast-track deportation procedures, The Guardian reports.
On Monday, the French parliament will debate the controversial bill, known as the “Darmanin law” in honour of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. However, the bill could be derailed before the debate even begins after the Green party Europe Écologie Les Verts announced it would move a motion to reject the law before it is presented to the chamber.
Parliamentarians have been arguing over the bill for more than a year. The government, which once considered the bill so risky that it withdrew it, is threatening to implement it if no agreement can be reached.
For their proposal to succeed, Green MPs will need the support of polar opposite parties in the chamber, including Nupes (Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale), a hard-left alliance, and Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, a party with conflicting goals of easing and tightening the legislation.
According to Darmanin, such a move would be a “denial of democracy”. He emphasised:
“It would be strange to be unable to debate a subject that matters so much to French people.”
If the motion fails and the debate goes ahead as planned, Emmanuel Macron’s government, which does not have a majority in the National Assembly, will need the support of at least one opposition party to pass the bill.
If Macron fails to get support, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will have a choice: withdraw the bill before the final vote if the government faces a humiliating defeat, or use the controversial constitutional tool Article 49:3 to pass it without a vote.
Borne had already withdrawn the bill in May because she feared it was too sensitive, so soon after a long political and public battle over pension reforms.
The bill is a raft of carrot-and-stick type measures, including mandatory language tests for foreigners seeking long-term residency, requiring them to prove they have “mastered a minimum level” of French. Currently, a language test must be passed by those seeking citizenship.
The new legislation will also make it easier to expel people who have settled in France but “do not respect the values of the republic”, including those convicted of certain offences, and will lower the age at which foreigners can be expelled.
The Sénat, France’s upper house of parliament, which is controlled by the right-wing, passed the bill last month, adding amendments tightening several key elements of the legislation. These include cancelling state-funded health care for undocumented workers, restricting citizenship rights and tightening rules for family members to settle in France. Senators also added an amendment exempting British second home owners from visa rules imposed after Brexit.
Most of these amendments, including relaxing rules for British second-home owners, were rejected by a National Assembly committee before the bill was presented to the House of Representatives on Monday.
Bourne said the bill was a “balanced text” with something for everyone. If the motion to reject the bill is defeated, the legislation will be debated from this week until early January.
