Macron ‘Hanging on by a Thread’ as Left and Right Join Forces to Block Immigration Bill

French President Emmanuel Macron is “hanging by a thread” as left and right-wing opposition parties banded together to reject a debate on his immigration bill.

Macron’s tenuous grasp on power, with his party governing from a minority position in the National Assembly, was thrown into doubt as his long-promised reforms to immigration were shot down on Monday afternoon as a motion by the green Ecologists party to block debate on the legislation was backed by the centrist Les Republicains, the right-wing populist National Rally of Marine Le Pen, and the leftist La France Insoumise, resulting in the bill being shot down by a margin of 270 votes to 265.

Ironically for Macron, while left-wing and pro-mass migration opposed the legislation for being too strict, former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen joined forces to block the bill as it did not go far enough, arguing that it would do little to stem the tide of migration into the country, Le Figaro reported. The populist firebrand said that her party would introduce alternative legislation this week, saying that Macron’s bill was a “pro-immigration law.”

The proposed bill from Macron’s government sought to strengthen government authority to remove criminal migrants sentenced to over five years in prison as well as to limit family chain migration. However, opponents criticised the bill for failing to include measures favoured by the senate, such as reducing the generous welfare and healthcare benefits afforded to migrants, which many claim acts as a “pull factor” to the country.

Following the embarrassing defeat in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, seen as one of the more hawkish members of Macron’s government on immigration, offered his resignation to the president, however, Macron rejected it.

Instead, Mr Macron turned his anger towards the opposition parties, accusing the move by the left and right to join together as a “cynical” act intended to “block the country” from reforming the immigration system. He went on to reject the notion that there was a viable alternative majority in the National Assembly to his own minority government.

However, National Rally President Jordan Bardella called for the dissolution of the parliament amid the “political crisis” and to “return to the people” with fresh legislative elections that could strip Macron’s ability to govern and potentially force his resignation.

“We are ready not only to return to the French but we are also ready to govern France”, Bardella declared, while saying that his party’s alternative immigration bill is ready and “is a thousand times tougher than the one proposed by the government. We have a thousand and one measures to give the French back their security, the fruits of their work.”

Meanwhile, head of the far-left La France Insoumise party Manuel Bompard warned the president from turning to the controversial constitutional article 49.3 to pass the immigration reforms without a vote, which Macron’s government did with the raise to the pension age earlier this year, sparking weeks of riots.

“If the government decides to go into force by imposing a 49.3, we will have taken another step in authoritarianism,” Bompard said, adding: “[The president] is hanging by a thread: that of the passage by force. This country cannot be governed like this for years to come.”

The issue of mass migration has come to the fore of the national debate in France in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attacks against Israel, with two suspected Islamist terror attacks taking place since then in France.

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