In a column published this Friday, hundreds of left-wing elected officials call on the French to demonstrate against the immigration law, adopted in Parliament, this Sunday, January 21. This call to rally is not the first…
The battle against the immigration law is not over for the elected officials of the left. A month after the adoption of the bill in Parliament, it is in the streets that they want to voice their opposition to the text which “dedicates an unprecedented decline in the protections and rights guaranteed to foreigners in our country”. In a column published in Release this Friday, January 19, more than 300 elected officials from the left – socialists, communists and even ecologists – are calling on the French to demonstrate against the text this Sunday, January 21.
Among the signatories are several mayors of large French cities: Anne Hidalgo (PS councilor of Paris), Johanna Rolland (PS councilor of Nantes), Gregory Doucet (EELV mayor of Lyon), Martine Aubry (PS councilor of Lille), Eric Piolle (PS councilor of Lille), EELV of Grenoble), Patrice Bessac (communist mayor of Montreuil) or even Carole Delga (PS president of the Occitanie region) and Stéphane Troussel (PS president of Seine-Saint-Denis). Hundreds of elected politicians denounce a law which “criminalizes undocumented people by reestablishing the offense of illegal residence”, “restricts access to social benefits and housing” and “violates the principles resulting from the French Revolution with the remission in question of the rights of the soil”.
The left against a “cultural victory of the extreme right”
The adoption of the immigration bill is none other than a “cultural victory for the extreme right under the friendly exterior of ‘at the same time'” according to the signatories of the platform. All also assure that the text “will in no way prevent illegal immigration, nor will it allow the return to their country of people on national territory”, but will deprive “people whose status is perfectly legal, who work and contribute ” of their rights.
The elected representatives of the left therefore meet the French in the streets on Sunday January 21. With this appeal, they add their voices to those of the 201 signatories of a previous column published in Médiapart And Humanity at the beginning of January and which was already calling for rallies against the immigration bill on January 21. The supporters of the first forum who see in the so-called asylum-immigration text “a dangerous turning point in the history of our Republic” also come, for some, from the political world, but others are artists, intellectuals, journalists, union or association representatives. The former Defender of Rights from 2014 to 2020 Jacques Toubon, the bosses of different unions – Sophie Binet of the CGT, Marylise Léon of the CFDT, Laurent Escure of the UNSA or even Benoît Teste of the FSU – and presidents of associations fighting against poverty or racism are behind this platform.
A new demonstration on January 21?
A first demonstration organized against the immigration law by a collective of associations defending undocumented immigrants took place on Sunday January 14. The event brought together thousands of people across France. If the recent calls from elected politicians, unions and associations are heard, new large-scale gatherings could take place this Sunday. The demonstration would then take place four days before the publication of the opinion of the Constitutional Council on the conformity of the bill with the Constitution. After the adoption of the bill, members of the presidential majority themselves recognized unconstitutional passages.