French President Emmanuel Macron responded on Wednesday to speculation that he has become a lame-duck president, opening the path for the far right to assume power. This comes a day after his flagship immigration bill was passed, with the surprising support of the far-right National Rally.
Macron’s government has faced internal strife as his coalition fractured over a bill perceived as too right-wing by many centrist lawmakers, leading to doubts about his ability to govern effectively.
In his first interview since the vote on Tuesday, Macron refuted the notion of any lasting damage, despite National Rally leader Marine Le Pen celebrating the passage of the bill and framing it as an “ideological victory” for her faction.
My majority “hasn’t shrunk,” the French president said on the France 5 TV channel. “I respect the women and men who abstained or voted against the bill, but has one of them left our coalition? Has one of them said I’m breaking away?”
On Tuesday, nearly a quarter of the 251 MPs in Macron’s coalition either abstained or voted against the immigration bill, which had been significantly toughened to secure the support of the conservative Les Républicains party. Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned within 24 hours of the vote, citing an inability to “explain the bill.” Surprisingly, the National Rally’s 88 lawmakers voted in favor, causing embarrassment for Macron’s party. French President Emmanuel Macron
During ten days of parliamentary turmoil, Macron’s government lost control of the bill and had to yield to increasing demands from conservatives, fueling speculation that the president had lost his ability to govern France, especially after his defeat in parliamentary elections last year.
Despite these challenges, Macron appeared confident on Wednesday, dismissing doubts about his leadership: “I haven’t finished the work. I still have three and a half years ahead of me, and let me tell you, I’m not stopping now.”
Macron also refuted accusations that he was fostering the rise of the far right, despite National Rally leader Marine Le Pen’s claims of victory. The revised immigration bill includes various measures to curb illegal migration, such as quotas limiting arrivals in France and stricter conditions for family residency permits. One contentious measure is a mandated five-year wait for legal immigrants applying for social security benefits, with the possibility of reducing it to 30 months for employed applicants.