Thousands of opponents of the “immigration” law took to the streets on Sunday January 14 in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon to demand the “total withdrawal” of the text and maintain the “pressure” before the Council’s decision constitutional on the law, which is due January 25.
“Immigration law, racist law. We don’t want it, we fight it,” chanted several thousand demonstrators in the capital who braved the cold, rushing from the Place de la République. More than four hundred collectives, associations, unions and political parties had called for demonstrations against a text which “takes up many ideas of the extreme right”.
“We are calling for the outright withdrawal of the law. We came to France to work, we are not delinquents,” says Mariama Sidibé, a former home help who is now spokesperson for the Coordination of Undocumented Migrants in Paris. “It’s a racist law, designed to keep us precarious and criminalize us, this mobilization is only the beginning,” adds Aboubacar Dembélé, from the collective of undocumented workers in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val- de-Marne).
New call to demonstrate on January 21
“The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, tells us that this text would be necessary to protect us from the extreme right. But then in order not to have Marine Le Pen, he is applying Marine Le Pen’s program, it’s insane,” said Marc Cecone, a former public transport mechanic, who marched in Marseille alongside 2,500 people, according to the prefecture’s count. Adopted forceps by Parliament on December 19, the text notably restricts the payment of social benefits for foreigners, establishes migration quotas, calls into question the automaticity of land law and reestablishes an “illegal residence offense”.
“We are not expecting anything from the decision of the Constitutional Council: it will undoubtedly remove certain articles, but we are asking for total withdrawal,” commented Denis Godard, a leader of the Solidarity March. In Lyon, between 2,300 people (depending on the prefecture) and 3,000 people (according to the organizers) marched to demand this same withdrawal. In Bordeaux, there were 2,000 to 3,000 people, according to the count of journalists from Agence France-Presse. Signs in the shape of human faces denounced critical situations: “We have been working and paying our taxes for two years. My family will no longer receive family allowances. »
Before the Constitutional Council’s decision, a new call to demonstrate against the law was launched by more than two hundred personalities and published by Mediapart and L’Humanité, for January 21.
