Left-wing deputies officially seized the Constitutional Council on Friday, December 22 evening, to contest the entire immigration law and “a record number of articles contrary to constitutional principles,” they believe.
The elected representatives of the four left-wing groups (La France insoumise, the socialists, the ecologists and the communists) say in a press release that they should be “heard at the beginning of January” at the Constitutional Council to present their arguments. The left had already announced its intention to seize the “wise men”, which President Emmanuel Macron will also seize for his part. The Council has a maximum of one month to decide.
In their appeal, the left-wing deputies point to around thirty articles and demand total censorship of this law adopted Tuesday evening. They are opposed to the conditioning of access to certain social benefits to the length of residence in France, considering the measure “contrary to the principle of equality”, and unrelated to the bill (“legislative overriding”). They also denounce the tightening of family reunification rules, seeing it as an “attack on privacy and the right to lead a normal family life”.
“Lack of understanding of the right to health protection”
These elected officials attack the establishment of “quotas” set by Parliament to cap “for the next three years” the number of foreigners admitted to the territory, seeing it as a “misunderstanding of Parliament’s powers”.
Among other grievances, they also contest the exclusion of foreigners in an irregular situation from social pricing in transport, considering it “contrary to the principle of equality”. They also accuse the bill of “disregarding the right to health protection” by “restricting the conditions for obtaining” a residence permit for sick foreigners.
Left-wing MPs criticize “unequal treatment” of foreign students with the article which asks them to justify the “real and serious” nature of their studies. They also denounce in this text what they consider to be “a challenge to the principle of unconditionality of emergency accommodation”.
