Immigration

French politics is quite confusing for British people. Brits are used to static parties that don't change their names and which occupy a certain space in political thought - be it left, centre or right. Those positions drift, and there are spectra within the parties, so you can talk of the Tory left, the right wing of the Labour Party, etc... But it's always Labour, Conservative and whatever the other one is called.

In France it's different. For a start there's more parties. Also they change their name  so it's hard to keep track of them. At the moment Emmanuel Macron's "En Marche" (EM, get it?) is the centre-right party and he has a minority government just now, sometimes backed by the centre-right party, currently called "Les Republicains". The centre-left is still represented, I think, by the Parti Socialiste. France also has a Parti Communiste. Then there's the far-right party currently called "Le Rassemblement National", headed by Marine LePen, daughter of Jean-Marie LePen.

Now please remember that French politics is confusing - and in what follows there are sure to be many errors! To get to the real truth read several newspapers, preferably in French!

M. Macron had two big issues to deal with in his presidency. The first was to reform the retirement system and introduce a later retirement age. Retirement age in France was 62, assuming you had made enough quarters of contributions to the system. Otherwise you can still retire but you get a proportionally smaller pension. Against such popular opposition, Macron succeeded in raising the age to 64, with other provisions I won't go into now. With a minority government and insufficient cross-party support, Mme Borne, the Prime Minister, used the 49.3 - the equivalent of the Parliament Act, to force the law through the Assemblée Nationale. It also had to get through Senate, and then be passed by the constitutional Council, which ensures that laws are in accordance with the French constitution.

The second big issue was to revise immigration law. France, like the whole of Western Europe, is faced with the Demographic Timebomb - falling birth rates mean a smaller workforce, an aging population and a shrinking economy. This law has just been voted through, and it is a bit of a problem.

The first problem is that the law is much harder than originally envisaged by the Macronists. They envisaged a law which would encourage immigrants to work in sectors that need more workers, and make it easier for employers in those sectors to find workers and get their papers sorted out. They have ended up with a law that stops overseas students having the right to bring their families with them, and that requires them to prove "serious studies" in order to come and to stay. The law also says that children born in France to immigrant parents will no longer have French citizenship (Droit de sol). It also restricts access to certain social benefits until you have spent some years in France, and establishes the need for a basic level of French to get the right to stay. (I'm puzzled by this one because Pat and I both needed to prove our level of French in order to get our visas...)

The second problem is that to get the law through the Assemblée Nationale Macron's minority government needed the support of people from other parties. It is here that Marine LePen played her had very skilfully. She refused to support the bill. It was toughened up. She still refused. And so on. Until at the last minute she decided to support it and the bill passed partly because of her backing. Crafty, eh! The problem is that this made the bill tougher than Macron wanted AND it makes him look further right than he wants to be...

Another problem is that the law will almost certainly not be approved by the Senate or by the Constitutional Council as it stands. France proudly proclaims "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood" as its motto, and this law explicitly does not treat all people equally. It is pretty obviously unconstitutional.

Of course, M. Macron may be counting on this, so that the Senate and the Council will excise the parts of the law that have had to be added, and we end up with a law that is much closer to what was originally intended.

However - the optics are not good... And from now on the government will have to read very carefully indeed.