Several thousand people demonstrated in a number of French cities on Saturday to denounce the immigration bill introduced by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
The examination of this controversial bill has been postponed to the autumn, but this did not prevent thousands of people from marching in the streets of Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg and Marseille.
In the Paris march, demonstrators marched behind a banner proclaiming “No to the Darmanin law. Against repression, confinement and deportations, for a migration policy of reception, regularize”.
The immigration bill “is a racist law, which aims to criminalize foreigners” and lead to “more deportations,” blasted a 31-year-old Malian illegal immigrant, quoted by the local press, participating in the rally in the capital.
The demonstration was also aimed at opposing the security operation “Wuambushu” carried out by the French authorities in Mayotte, to dislodge illegal migrants, mostly Comorians, from the unsanitary slums of this overseas department.
In Rennes, more than 500 people marched, chanting “Down with the police state” or “Darmanin in the Vilaine” – the river running through the Breton capital.
In Nîmes, a hundred people also gathered in front of the city’s courthouse for the same reason.
Hundreds of people also beat the pavement in Marseille, or in Strasbourg, where they were gathered behind two banners “No border, no nation, freedom of movement” and “Against racism, against fascism, regularization of all undocumented migrants”.
Deprived of a majority in the National Assembly, the French government announced last Wednesday its decision to postpone the presentation of its immigration bill until the fall.
This bill, desired by the president of the republic, Emmanuel Macron, was originally part of the roadmap for the “hundred days of appeasement” and “action” decreed by the head of state, in order to turn the page on the highly controversial pension reform and calm the anger of opponents of the reform.
The future immigration bill includes plans to deport more foreigners who pose a “serious threat”, to reform the asylum system to speed up procedures and to facilitate the regularization of certain undocumented workers.
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