The legislation, approved by both houses late on Tuesday, was initially good news for the centrist president, who made the migration bill a key plank of his second mandate and might otherwise have had to shelve it.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s the fruit of a compromise\u201d: French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n But the support of Le Pen\u2019s opposition party for the bill surprised Macron, prompting him on to accuse her of political opportunism and to add in a television interview: \u201cThat was a shoddy move\u201d.<\/p>\n Just six months before European Parliament elections in which immigration will be key, the bill\u2019s adoption could boost Le Pen who called the rejigged bill \u201ca great ideological victory\u201d for her far-right party.<\/p>\n Macron contested that, calling it \u201ca defeat for the Rassemblement\u201d. He said Le Pen\u2019s party \u201cplays with fear\u201d.<\/p>\n Rassemblement has become a political force, with 88 MPs in the lower house.<\/p>\n French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n An Elabe poll for BFM TV showed 70 per cent of the French backed the new bill, including 87 per cent of Macron supporters.<\/p>\n But in a sign Le Pen had won the battle of narratives in public opinion, the same poll showed 73 per cent thought her party\u2019s ideas had inspired the bill.<\/p>\n Macron will refer the bill to the Constitutional Council for checks on whether it complies with the Constitution before he can sign it into law. The council could strike down some of the tougher measures if it deems them unconstitutional.<\/p>\n The conservative Les Republicains, who partnered with his ruling alliance on that bill and have over the years hardened their discourse closer to that of the far-right, also claimed victory, saying the bill was essentially theirs.<\/p>\n The bill underscored Macron\u2019s difficulties governing without a parliamentary majority, which he lost last year, as well as the rightward shift in much of Europe as governments try to curb the rise of the far-right by being tougher on immigration.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bill will help us fight against what feeds the Rassemblement national,\u201d Macron said. \u201cOur fellow citizens tell us we don\u2019t control illegal immigration well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the fruit of a compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n He said there were measures in the bill he didn\u2019t like, such as the fact foreign students would need to present a refundable deposit. He said that could be reworked. \u201cMy work here is not done. I still have 3\u00bd years ahead of me. I can assure you, I won\u2019t stop now.\u201d<\/p>\n The tougher rules \u2013 including migration quotas, making it harder for immigrants\u2019 children to become French citizens, and delaying migrants\u2019 access to welfare benefits \u2013 were added to the bill to win the support of right-wing MPs.<\/p>\n The bill makes it easier to expel undocumented migrants, while watering down plans to loosen curbs over residency permits for workers in labour-deprived sectors.<\/p>\n Those conditions caused unease among Macron\u2019s more left-leaning MPs, and dozens either abstained or gave it the thumbs-down in the vote.<\/p>\n Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau resigned in protest over the immigration bill. \u201cIt\u2019s not possible for me to defend this text,\u201d Rousseau, a former Communist, told Le Monde<\/em>.<\/p>\n The rebellion within the government seemed to be contained as all the other left-wing ministers were present at a weekly cabinet meeting that Rousseau skipped and no other resignation had materialised by Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne rejected talk of a crisis in Macron\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done our job, we wanted a text with useful measures that our citizens were calling for,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cNow let\u2019s move on.\u201d<\/p>\n But Brittany MP Jean-Charles Larsonneur told France Bleu radio he was leaving the centrist Horizons group, part of Macron\u2019s alliance, saying the law breached \u201crepublican values\u201d.<\/p>\n Even the lower house of parliament\u2019s president, Ya\u00ebl Braun-Pivet, who voted in favour of the bill, told BFM TV she was \u201cterribly bothered\u201d by some of its content, in particular delaying access to welfare benefits for migrants with children.<\/p>\n The rebels in Macron\u2019s party could further weaken his hold on parliament and complicate the rest of his five-year mandate.<\/p>\n Macron won his two presidential mandates in 2017 and 2022 after voters rallied behind him to bar Le Pen from winning, and left-wing MPs said the rejigged migration bill was a betrayal of promises made to fend off right-wing ideas.<\/p>\n According to statistics office INSEE, the immigration share of France\u2019s population has been growing steadily.<\/p>\n The number people living in France but born abroad stood at 5 per cent in 1946, 7.4 per cent in 1975 and 8.5 per cent in 2010, to just over 10 per cent of the population, or 2.5 million people, in 2022. About a third have become French citizens.<\/p>\n Hard-left MP Mathilde Panot, president of the France Unbowed party, urged Macron not to turn the bill into law, calling the text a \u201cfull-scale attack on fundamental rights\u201d.<\/p>\n Advocacy organisations have criticised the bill as a threat to the rights of migrants.<\/p>\n Migrants\u2019 rights group Cimade called it \u201cthe most repressive and abusive immigration bill drawn up in the last 40 years\u201d in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n Other governments across Europe have also opted for tougher migration policies. The European Union itself reached an agreement on Wednesday to reshape its migration and asylum rules with the aim to limit the number of incoming migrants.<\/p>\n In the Netherlands, the far-right\u2019s Geert Wilders topped elections last month after the previous government collapsed over immigration. In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing deep divisions within his party over asylum policies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n