French Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau resigned on Tuesday in response to the parliament’s approval of a tough immigration law.
After 18 months of wrangling over immigration reforms, both houses of parliament approved the controversial law on Tuesday. It was also supported by the far-right National Union (RN) led by Marine Le Pen, and it caused an unprecedented revolt in the ranks of the ruling party “Renaissance” (RE) founded by Macron.
Some French media have called RN’s support for the law a “kiss of death”.
About a quarter of the ruling coalition’s 251 MPs in the National Assembly voted against the government’s proposed law or abstained. Several left-leaning ministers have also expressed their objections to it.
Rousseau, who was once both a communist and a socialist before joining the RE, announced his resignation, but despite rumors circulating overnight on Wednesday, no other ministers appear to have followed suit.
The representative of the government, Olivier Verans, has announced that there is no “ministerial revolt”.
Prime Minister Elizabete Borne also emphasized that the adoption of the law did not cause a “majority crisis”.
In an interview with the public radio “France Inter”, Borne admitted that some provisions of the new law may be unconstitutional, adding that after its evaluation by the Constitutional Council, its “text will evolve”.
“We wanted to pass a law on useful, effective measures that our citizens expect, with two goals – to get rid of those who do not have the right to be in France faster and more effectively, and to better integrate those we have decided to welcome,” the Prime Minister said.
2023-12-20 21:16:20
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