Paris, Jan 21 (EFE) – Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Sunday across France against a new and controversial immigration law, four days before the Constitutional Council is set to announce a decision on the validity of the measure.
In 164 marches across the country, demonstrators protested against “a dangerous turn in the history of our republic,” according to the manifesto signed by 201 personalities from different sectors of public life.
In Paris, 16,000 participants, according to the police, marched between two symbolic places, the Trocadero square and the monumental complex of Les Invalides.
Among the participants were artistic and political personalities, such as the leaders of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, and the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, among others.
The bill, passed by parliament on December 19, has not yet come into force as it has been referred to the Constitutional Council to rule on its validity.
President Emmanuel Macron worked with the right-wing Republican party and the support of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally to push the law through parliament, even as his own centrist Renaissance party abstained and his health minister resigned in protest.
He later had to accept that some of the law’s provisions could be unconstitutional and sent it to be revised by the Council.
The leftist and ecologist parties also filed a complaint with the Constitutional Council claiming that up to 24 articles of the law violate the French Constitution.
The law challenges birthright citizenship, makes it harder for non-EU migrants to bring family members to France, introduces immigration quotas set by parliament, and makes it harder for immigrants to access social services, including health care.
EFE
rcf/ics
