Contested immigration bill comes before French parliament

PARIS: The French Senate starts on Monday to debate a hugely controversial immigration bill that the government says will bolster security for legal migrants but which opponents see as new evidence of a lurch to the right by President Emmanuel Macron.

Left-wingers reject the draft law´s bid to expel more people and toughen conditions for irregular migrants, while conservatives bristle at provisions to regularise the situation of undocumented workers in sectors with labour shortages.

It is the right flank that poses the biggest obstacle to Macron and his minority centrist government passing the legislation. Conservative MPs´ votes will be needed to get the bill through the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, while the right has a majority in the upper house, the Senate.

“This text is about firmness,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Sunday, drawing on language meant to appeal to the conservative Republicans party.