French top court rejects large parts of controversial immigration law
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Transcript
00:00 France's constitutional court says much of the recent immigration bill that passed thanks
00:04 to the support from the far right is against the law.
00:08 As is customary for new laws passed by parliament, it went to review to determine whether or
00:14 not it is in line with France's basic laws.
00:17 Even Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who pushed for the bill to pass, acknowledged
00:23 recently that certain measures are manifestly and clearly contrary to the constitution,
00:30 in particular those added to appease the far right.
00:35 Our guest on this topic to help us understand what this all means, Renaud Foucault, senior
00:41 lecturer in economics at Lancaster University in the UK.
00:45 Thank you so much for joining us.
00:47 Is this decision a surprise?
00:51 It's not really a surprise, and it's actually a pretty clever move by the French government,
00:55 because what they decided to do at the end to get the law approved was to say yes in
01:00 the last minute to a lot of very symbolic asks from the conservative right and the far
01:05 right.
01:06 But what the constitutional court said today is that this is not a proper way to adopt
01:10 the law.
01:11 So for a lot of those laws deemed inconstitutional today, it's not so much about the principle
01:15 of the law, but about the process that was used to adopt it.
01:19 And so in that sense, it's not so much of a surprise.
01:22 The very big topic that has been really deemed unconstitutional is the yearly debate on quotas
01:27 of migrants in the parliament.
01:28 But for the rest, it's really the original law, almost as dreamed by Elizabeth Borne
01:33 and Gérard Armanin a year ago.
01:36 So that means that what is left of the law that has not been kind of barred?
01:42 So the main objective claimed by the law was to make it easier for the government to deport
01:48 migrants who were deemed as illegal by French courts.
01:52 So this part is staying.
01:53 Then there was a second part, which was about making it easier to regularize people who
01:58 are working in jobs that are called "intentions," for which there is a shortage of labor in
02:03 France.
02:04 And this has been slightly reduced during the debates to please the conservative right.
02:09 But this is still staying, meaning that it will be easier for France to keep those migrants
02:14 who are bringing value to the economy and who are deemed necessary to the workforce.
02:19 What is left on the side is really a lot of symbolic measure, and I think something also
02:22 very important, which is the new laws for the students.
02:25 So France is one of those countries that is still treating largely non-EU students the
02:31 same as the French one.
02:32 And there were rules introduced in that law that were making it much more complicated
02:37 for migrants to come in French universities.
02:40 And so that's pretty good news for the French higher education system, because they're going
02:43 to keep the possibility to be attractive for foreign students and to attract bright people
02:47 in the French higher education.
02:50 Is the government going to try to re-pass this law or to do something more with the
02:55 bill?
02:56 Is it going to try to get another version passed that's more in line with the constitutional
03:03 court and the way that a law is supposed to be created, as you were talking about earlier?
03:11 I think today Emmanuel Macron must be very happy, and I think there is absolutely no
03:16 appetite for him to pass again the parts of the law that he was disagreeing with in the
03:21 first place.
03:22 So all of these were concessions to appease a relatively small group of members of parliament,
03:26 which is the Republicans, or the conservative right.
03:29 But the main goal of the majority now is achieved.
03:33 So perhaps those will try if they get a majority.
03:36 It will also become a very important topic in the European elections.
03:40 We will hear a lot about the judges against democracy, so very Berlusconi-like or Trump-like
03:45 debates I suppose from the far right, from the Rassemblement National.
03:49 But in terms of what Macron wanted to get, of what Darmanin and Borne wanted to get,
03:53 I think for them it's almost 100 percent victory today.
03:56 And they've been very critical of the way they tried to appease the right to get a majority
04:00 in the end.
04:01 But in the end, this was a very clever move because they keep what they wanted to have
04:05 and what they didn't want has been deemed illegal.
04:08 So we're talking, my last question for you is that there's a fear of the far right getting
04:15 closer and closer to power in many countries across the Western world in general, including
04:21 here in Europe.
04:23 Many of them saying that the real danger is that these parties will get into the institutions
04:30 and that they will be able to change the way that governments rule.
04:36 Is this a case where we're seeing the opposite happen?
04:41 In a way, yes, in terms of the result of that law.
04:44 But if you think about the storytelling that can put the far right to power, I think it's
04:48 always a bit dangerous to do what the government has been doing, which is to play a bit with
04:52 their ideas, then to put them on the side and use somehow the constitutional court as
04:57 a way to avoid talking too much about that.
04:59 I think the Rassemblement National will be in a pretty strong position now for the next
05:04 election saying the will of the people has been blocked by the judges.
05:07 It's always a very powerful political message to push.
05:11 So it's clearly a short term victory for the government.
05:14 But the thing in terms of the story that the far right like to tell about the people versus
05:19 the judge, democracy versus some unknown establishment, I think this might be somehow something that
05:25 benefits to people like Marine Le Pen.
05:27 Something to look out for in the future.
05:29 Thank you so much for answering our questions.
05:32 Renaud Foucault, professor in economics at Lancaster University.
05:35 Thank you so much for joining us.