French MPs pass controversial immigration reform

The French parliament has passed legislation toughening France's immigration policy. The amended bill was backed by both President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN). The vote divided Mr Macron's party, and Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned in protest.

Leaders of a third of French regions said they would not comply with certain measures in the law. A previous draft was rejected by parliament last week when the National Rally as well as the left voted against. In response, the government redrafted the bill, making some of its provisions tougher.

The new legislation makes it more difficult for migrants to bring family members to France and delays their access to welfare benefits. It also bans detaining minors in detention centres. A controversial provision discriminates between citizens and migrants, even those living in the country legally, in determining eligibility for benefits. The tougher version appealed to right-wing parties, who backed it on Monday. Ms Le Pen welcomed the amended bill, calling it an "ideological victory" for the far-right.

"This is our bill," said Eric Ciotti, the leader of the right-wing Republican party. He called it "firm and courageous". But left-wingers said Mr Macron was enabling the far-right. "History will remember those who betrayed their convictions," Socialist party leader Olivier Faure said. 32 of France's 101 departments, including Paris, said they would refuse to implement the provisions of the law on benefits for non-citizens.

The French vote came hours before an EU agreement to reform the asylum system across the bloc's 27 member states. The new pact, agreed by EU governments and European Parliament members, includes creating border detention centres and enabling the quicker deportation of rejected asylum seekers. Hailed as a landmark agreement by Parliament President Roberta Metsola, the new system allows asylum seekers to be relocated from southern member states, which have the highest numbers of arrivals, to other countries.
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20 December 2023
Ido Vock
BBC News

Murder of Paris student fuels anger at failed deportation

The suspected killer was arrested by police at Geneva train station. The murder of a 19 year-old female student in an exclusive neighbourhood of Paris is fuelling new calls from the French right for tougher action on immigration.
The body of the young woman, named only as Philippine, was found on Saturday, half-buried in the Bois de Boulogne park on the western edge of the capital.
She had last been seen on Friday lunchtime a few hundred metres away, as she left the Paris-Dauphine university campus where she was studying economics.
The suspected killer was traced to Geneva, where he was arrested on Tuesday and awaits deportation to France.

He is a 22 year-old Moroccan man who was released from detention in France earlier this month after serving five years for raping a student in 2019. Named by French media as Taha O, he was the subject of an expulsion order from France, which had not been carried out.
For France’s hardline new interior minister Bruno Retailleau, it is a first test after he took office last week promising that his top three priorities would be to “establish order, establish order and establish order.”
“It is up to us as public officials to … change our legal arsenal in order to protect the French,” he said on the X social media platform.

The far-right National Rally (RN) seized on the murder as more evidence of the laxity of the French judicial system. “This migrant had no right to be here, but he was able to offend again in total impunity. Our justice is too lenient; our state is dysfunctional. It is time for the government to act,” said the RN’s president, Jordan Bardella. With more than 120 members of parliament, the RN has leverage over the minority government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier because it can decide at any time to support a vote of no confidence and potentially bring it down.

Some left-wing politicians joined calls for greater effectiveness in carrying out expulsion orders.
The suspect “should have gone straight from prison to plane”, said Socialist party leader Olivier Faure.

Hugh Schofield
BBC News

 
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What Trump has promised to do on ‘day one’ as presidente

The Washington Post
By Derek Hawkins, Clara Ence Morse and Eric Lau
September 21, 2024

Donald Trump has a long list of executive actions he says he wants to carry out on his potential first day back in the White House. Among them: Begin mass deportations, eliminate perks for electric vehicles and ban transgender women from women’s sports.

Since launching his bid for a second term, Trump has made 41 distinct promises about what he says he wants to do “on day one” as president, and he has mentioned those promises more than 200 times on the campaign trail, according to a Washington Post analysis of his speeches.

While presidential candidates often trumpet their plans for their first day in the White House, Trump has leaned especially hard on this rhetorical device when he’s behind the teleprompters. His proposals often envision stretching the powers of the Oval Office beyond how previous presidents — including Trump himself — have invoked them.

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Project 2025: The Far-Right Playbook for American Authoritarianism

 

The far right has made public its plans for an ‘ideal’ America if one of their allies wins the 2024 presidential election in its 2025 Presidential Transition Project. Project 2025 is spearheaded by the far-right think tank Heritage Foundation and supported by more than 80 organizations, many well-known for their extreme positions, and for pushing hate and Christian nationalism. The authors and supporters of Project 2025 claim this plan will “rescue the country” from “elite rule and woke cultural warriors.”