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French President Emmanuel Macron salvaged his immigration reform in parliament on Tuesday by making it harsher on foreigners, but risked a crisis in his government when the law was approved with the support of far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
The late-night parliamentary vote capped 10 days of drama during which the government lost control of its long-promised immigration plans and toughened the law to win the votes of conservative lawmakers.
It was the latest sign of how Macron can no longer impose legislation now that his centrist alliance does not have a parliamentary majority, and will add to concerns over his ability to govern.
In a rare sign of dissent, almost a quarter of the 251 MPs in Macron’s alliance voted against the plans or abstained.
On Wednesday morning, Macron’s health minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned in protest over the law, although several other left-leaning members of government who had on Tuesday expressed concerns about the compromises remained.
The law makes it easier to remove people who are in the country illegally, limits access to welfare for foreigners and creates migration quotas.
But it also includes a business-friendly measure to give work permits to undocumented people employed in sectors with labour shortages, which the government said reflected its desire to help migrants who contributed to society and the economy.
Interior minister Gérald Darmanin lauded the result as a good compromise that was “in the interests of the French” on an issue of national importance.
But centrist and leftwing lawmakers denounced the compromise as a capitulation to the far right’s xenophobic ideas.
A group of non-governmental organisations called the law the “most regressive for the rights of foreign people in 40 years”, while trade unions called it a “red carpet” for Le Pen.
The bill reflects a rightward shift on migration issues in Europe as governments try to respond to hardening public opinion and counter the rise of far-right and populist parties pushing for bolder measures to address the number of arrivals.
Macron’s government, under pressure from Le Pen’s resurgent far-right party and facing public opinion that has hardened against immigration, initially touted its reform as a “balanced” one that would fix longstanding problems.
The reform was intended to be an example of Macron’s en même temps (at the same time) approach to policymaking, which reflects how his government has long adopted ideas and recruited politicians from the left and the right.
But the immigration plans provoked opposition across the spectrum in parliament, and in a bid to secure votes to save it, the government negotiated with the conservative Les Républicains to toughen its proposals.
On Tuesday afternoon, Le Pen performed a U-turn and ordered her 88 MPs to support the stricter version of the law despite having said it was too lax only days before.
Her move put the government on the back foot when it had hammered out a compromise in a cross-party parliamentary committee after negotiations with the LR.
“If in power, we would go further and act more effectively, but this law is on the right track,” said Le Pen. “There has been an uncontestable victory of our ideas.”
Her shift piled pressure on MPs in Macron’s centrist alliance, some of whom have leftwing beliefs and were loath to vote with Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party.
The final version of the law retains a scaled-back proposal to allow undocumented workers to apply for work permits if they are in sectors such as healthcare or construction that are struggling with labour shortages.
But rightwing MPs also added new provisions that Macron’s government had not proposed, such as a requirement for foreigners to be in France for as long as five years before they are eligible for anti-poverty programmes such as housing subsidies.
They also made it harder for migrants to bring family members to France and ended a system that used to grant citizenship automatically to people born in France to immigrant parents. Foreign students will have to pay a deposit to get visas, something the government initially opposed.
Mathieu Gallard, an analyst at pollster Ipsos, said that Macron’s immigration battle would have far-reaching consequences.
“This shows us a Rassemblement National that is clearly in a position of strength,” he added. “It has created rebels within Macron’s own group so will leave scars. His position has been weakened.”
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