Oltralpe Immigration is an increasingly central theme, so – starting from the overseas territory of Mayotte – the government wants to exacerbate the laws on nationality. Appropriating himself of political ideas of the right. And Macron is the most determined.
Not even the time to be appointed at the end of December and to approve the fateful budget law of 2025, which the new French government has undergone the debate on immigration, with an unexpected of the tones and proposals never seen before during the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. Above all, the attitude of the centrist Prime Minister François Bayrou is striking, who at the end of January has displaced observers and public opinion by talking about a migratory “summary” feeling in France.
A lightning bolt in a clear sky that launched by the Prime Minister, which fell precisely during the negotiations open as part of the maneuver with the socialists, who skipped from the chair in resenting an expression dear to Jean-Marie the pen pronounced by a moderate. Those who have remained firmly in their place are the ministers of the interior and justice, respectively the Republican Bruno Retailleau and Gérald Dermanin, who have become the emblem of the hard fist in the fight against irregular immigration between proclamations, announcements and provocations.
The last, in order of time, that of the Guardasigilli, who proposed to open a “public debate” on the possibility of narrowing the ius soli in France through a modification of the Constitution. Today the civil code of the Alps provides that the children of two foreigners born in metropolitan France obtain nationality at the age of 18 if they are resident in the country, where they had to spend at least five years since the age of 11. The request, however, can be made already at 13 years.
The minister’s proposal came after the National Assembly He approved the close applied to Mayotte, recently devastated by a cyclone. In that territory of overseas the new born will have citizenship only if the two parents have lived regularly in the area for at least a year (while before a parent had been present for three months). Not even the time to let the controversy explode, that Bayrou intervened on the subject by telling himself willing to launch a “wider” reflection on “what it means to be French”. A discussion on national identity, therefore, that by terminology and intent appears very similar to the historical struggles of the droite radical.
“A cultural battle is being consumed, with the right, even the most extreme one, which pushes the government to have an increasingly hard position on immigration” explains the polytologist Vincent Martigny, professor at the Côte d’Azur University. “In this context, the premier remains in balance, making some concessions to avoid another reform, given that in France one is made every two years”, adds the specialist.
And the results of the latest measures? According to the data of the example, in 2023 in France immigrants represented 10.7 percent of the population, against 7.4 percent in 1975. According to the latest report by the Ministry of the Interior, however, last year the Out of the Alps have released 336,700 residence permits, 1.8 percent more than 2023. But the expulsions increased by 26.7 percent with 21,601 people reached on frontier.
In such a context, the French seem eager for a strong reaction: by a study conducted by Ipsos for the financial economic newspaper The tribune74 percent want a referendum on “social aspects of immigration”, such as economic or housing aid.
The theme is dear to Marine Le Pen who caught the ball by asking for a referendum on the suppression of the ius soli, while the left has further split with socialists willing to enter the discussions so as not to leave an “empty” space and the radicals of La France Insoumise insurgents against the hypothesis of reviewing the law. An event that, as was predictable, caused bad moods also within the already weak executive, from which the contrary rumors of some ministers emerged with sensitivity closer to the gauchesuch as that of Elisabeth Borne or that of the economy, Eric Lombard.
“The centrist group that supports the government is made up of allies from right and left” recalls Martigny, according to which “Bayrou in an attempt to satisfy everyone risks finding himself surrounded by opponents”. But also to bring down the government again with a new distrust, supported by lepelists or socialists.
The fact is that for President Emmanuel Macron the reopening of the dossier with such radical proposals represents a novelty. “There is an evolution of macronism with a fairly clear turning point,” says the polytologist, recalling that “the more the president is in difficulty and the more he approaches the right and consequently sends conservative signals”. A utilitarian mutation, forced also from the reality of the facts with which France must compare.
