After the adoption of the restriction of soil law in Mayotte in the National Assembly, some ministers defend the generalization of the measure to France. François Bayrou says he is open to the debate, but has a decided opinion on the subject.
Will the law of the soil be considerably restricted in Mayotte, will it soon be over the entire French territory? The deputies adopted the LR bill hardening the conditions of access to French nationality for children born in Mayotte, Thursday, February 6 in the National Assembly. The text must still be voted in the Senate, but should be easily adopted by the right -wing senatorial. The debates on the right of the soil in Mayotte were just an end when the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, spoke of the idea of extending these restrictions or others to all of France: “Public debate must open up on soil law “.
According to the Keeper of the Seals, a generalized hardening of soil law is justified because the current legislation “does not seem sufficient to ensure that all the people who come to France, enter our soil and request nationality French, do so for good reasons “. If the Keeper of the Seals is said to be “favorable to the debate”, he considers, however, that such a modification of the right of the soil “must be reformed in the Constitution” and that it is up to “the French people to decide”.
For the time being, no public debate is planned. If some, like Gérald Darmanin, postpone him to a possible referendum or the next presidential election, the Prime Minister judges that there is no reason to postpone the discussion. “We can get into a debate” he immediately declared on the set of big gules on RMCFriday, February 7, believing that “nothing should be rejected. We must think about how this debate is developing, is organized”. According to him, the debate should not, however, be limited to the question of soil law, but widen to other questions raised: “What is French? What does it give As a right?
Debates envisaged, a divided government
If François Bayrou plans as his Minister of the Interior to initiate a debate on soil law, he has already expressed his personal position on January 27 on Lci : favorable to a restriction of the measure in Mayotte, he does not want the latter to be applied to all of France. Number two of the government, the Minister of Education Elisabeth Borne indicated that he is not favorable to the generalized hardening of the law on the ground on RTLon February 7, joining the opinion of the Prime Minister.
But other members of the government defend this idea, Bruno Retailleau at the top of the line. The Minister of the Interior affirmed his position on the subject as soon as he arrived in Beauvau: “We cannot become French without noticing,” he launched in October 2024 on France Inter. It should be joined by the majority of ministers from the right.
Beyond the executive, the forces of the presidential camp, the right and the extreme right are most often expressed in favor of such a measure. While all leftist parties, already opposed to the restrictions provided for Mayotte, categorically refuse to see the law of the reformed soil. In the center, elected officials could be distributed among the two camps, but some having supported the bill concerning Mayotte oppose the idea of a limited soil law in mainland France. This is the case of the Mahoraise MP Estelle Youssouffa who declared on February 6 on February 6 Franceinfo that “Mayotte has always asked for the abolition of the right of the soil [sur son territoire, mais] never asked for the abolition of soil law for the rest of the country “.