Macron facing rebellion after far-right backs French immigration bill

A general view shows the hemicycle during the questions to the government session at the National Assembly ahead of a vote by members of parliament on immigration bill in Paris, France, December 19, 2023. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 20 December 2023
Follow

Macron facing rebellion after far-right backs French immigration bill

  • Various amendments have seen the immigration measures further tightened from when the bill was originally submitted, with the left accusing the government of caving in to pressure from the far right

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron faced a major rebellion within his own party from left-leaning deputies on Tuesday in a crisis sparked by the backing of a toughened-up immigration bill by the far right under Marine Le Pen.
Macron swept to power in 2017 heading a broad centrist movement that rallied together the left and the right, but that fragile unity now risks cracking over the legislation.
Various amendments have seen the immigration measures further tightened from when the bill was originally submitted, with the left accusing the government of caving in to pressure from the far right.
Le Pen endorsed the new-look bill but key left-leaning members of Macron’s Renaissance Party and allied factions indicated they could no longer support it, with several ministers reportedly threatening to resign.
“We can rejoice in ideological progress, an ideological victory even for the National Rally (RN), since this is now enshrined into law as a national priority,” said Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate who leads the RN’s lawmakers in parliament and is widely expected to stand again for president in 2027.
The RN had previously said it would vote against the bill or abstain.
Le Pen’s announcement came after a commission of upper-house senators and lower-house National Assembly MPs agreed a new draft of the bill, which had been voted down without being debated in the National Assembly last week in a major blow to Macron.
The legislation was, as expected, passed by the Senate but faces a far stiffer test in the National Assembly later Tuesday.
While on paper the government has the numbers for the legislation to be passed with the support of the right-wing Republicans, there are growing concerns within Macron’s camp.
Prominent left-leaning Renaissance MP Sacha Houlie said he would vote against the legislation and called on others to follow, with some sources saying that around 30 pro-Macron MPs could do so.
In a sign of the seriousness of the situation, Macron called a meeting of his ruling party at the Elysee palace ahead of the vote, party sources told AFP.
According to a participant at the meeting, Macron said he would submit the bill to a new reading rather than promulgate it if it were passed only with the help of the votes from Le Pen’s RN.
This means the government would not count the RN’s votes in support of the bill.
Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau, Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau and Housing Minister Patrice Vergriete were meeting Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and warned they could resign, sources told AFP.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, an ambitious 41-year-old who has spearheaded the legislation, had warned Sunday that Le Pen risked winning the 2027 presidential election if the bill were not passed.
The left and hard-left have reacted with horror to the prospect of the legislation being passed, with the head of Socialist lawmakers in the National Assembly, Boris Vallaud, calling it a “great moment of dishonor for the government.”
Passing the legislation is critical for Macron, who cannot stand again in 2027 after two consecutive terms and risks being seen as a lame duck with more than three years left of his term.
The government does not have a majority in parliament since the legislative elections that followed his re-election in 2022.
“The political crisis around the immigration bill is a moment of truth where all the fragilities of Emmanuel Macron’s mandate are coming together,” the Le Monde daily said in an editorial.
Dozens of NGOS slammed what they described as potentially the “most regressive” immigration law in decades.
It is “the most regressive bill of the past 40 years for the rights and living conditions of foreigners, including those who have long been in France,” around 50 groups including the French Human Rights League said in a joint statement.
A key element is now that social security benefits for foreigners be conditional on five years of presence in France, or 30 months for those who have jobs.
Migration quotas can also now be agreed and there are also measures for dual-national convicts being stripped of French nationality.
“With this text directly inspired by RN pamphlets against immigration, we are facing a shift in the history of the republic and its fundamental values,” French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel said.


Slashed US aid showing impact, as Congress codifies cuts

Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

Slashed US aid showing impact, as Congress codifies cuts

WASHINGTON: The United States’ destruction of a warehouse worth of emergency food that had spoiled has drawn outrage, but lawmakers and aid workers say it is only one effect of President Donald Trump’s abrupt slashing of foreign assistance.
The Senate early Thursday approved nearly $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid as well as public broadcasting, formalizing a radical overhaul of spending that Trump first imposed with strokes of his pen on taking office nearly six months ago.
US officials confirmed that nearly 500 tons of high-nutrition biscuits, meant to keep alive malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, were incinerated after they passed their expiration date in a warehouse in Dubai.
Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party said they had warned about the food in March. Senator Tim Kaine said that the inaction in feeding children “really exposes the soul” of the Trump administration.
Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management, acknowledged to Kaine that blame lay with the shuttering of the US Agency for International Development , which was merged into the State Department after drastic cuts.
“I think that this was just a casualty of the shutdown of USAID,” Rigas said.
The Atlantic magazine, which first reported the episode, said that the United States bought the biscuits near the end of Biden administration for around $800,000 and that the Trump administration’s burning of the food was costing taxpayers another $130,000.
For aid workers, the biscuit debacle was just one example of how drastic and sudden cuts have aggravated the impact of the aid shutdown.
Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president for global policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps, said that large infrastructure projects were shut down immediately, without regard to how to finish them.
“This really was yanking the rug out, or turning the the spigot off, overnight,” she said.
She pointed to the termination of a USAID-backed Mercy Corps project to improve water and sanitation in the turbulent east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Work began in 2020 and was scheduled to end in September 2027.
“Infrastructure projects are not things where 75 percent is ok. It’s either done or it’s not,” she said.
The Republican-led Senate narrowly approved the package, which needs a final green light from the House of Representatives, that, in the words of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, will rescind funding for “$9 billion worth of crap.”
The bill includes ending all $437 million the United States would have given to several UN bodies including the children’s agency UNICEF and the UN Development Programme. It also pulls $2.5 billion from development assistance.
Under pressure from moderate Republicans, the package backs off from ending PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative credited with saving 25 million lives since it was launched by former president George W. Bush more than two decades ago.
Republicans and the Trump-launched Department of Government Efficiency, initially led by tycoon Elon Musk, have highlighted spending by USAID on issues that are controversial in the United States, saying it does not serve US interests.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the Republicans were getting rid of “egregious abuses.”
“We can’t fund transgender operas in Peru with US taxpayer dollars,” Johnson told reporters, an apparent reference to a US grant under the Biden administration for the staging of an opera in Colombia that featured a transgender protagonist.
The aid cuts come a week after the State Department laid off more than 1,300 employees after Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended or merged several offices, including those on climate change, refugees and human rights.
Rubio called it a “very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.”
Senate Democrats issued a scathing report that accused the Trump administration of ceding global leadership to China, which has been increasing spending on diplomacy and disseminating its worldview.
The rescissions vote “will be met with cheers in Beijing, which is already celebrating America’s retreat from the world under President Trump,” said Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.


‘Benign’ vein issue behind Trump’s swollen legs: White House

Updated 12 min 41 sec ago
Follow

‘Benign’ vein issue behind Trump’s swollen legs: White House

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with a chronic but benign vein condition after seeking medical examination for swollen legs, the White House said Thursday.
The presidential physician found Trump, 79, has “chronic venous insufficiency” — a condition where damaged leg veins fail to keep blood flowing properly — Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, calling it a “benign and common condition.”
Responding to speculation over recent photos showing bruising on Trump’s hand, Leavitt said “this was consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen.”
Trump became the oldest person in history to assume the presidency when he began his second term this January, replacing Democrat Joe Biden, who stepped down at 81.
The Republican frequently boasts of his energy levels and the administration recently even posted an image depicting him as Superman.
In April, Trump said after undergoing a routine medical check-up that he was in “very good shape.”
Leavitt’s revelations follow viral online discussions about the president’s visibly swollen ankles and discolored right hand.
She said he had undergone “a comprehensive examination, including diagnostic vascular studies. Bilateral lower extremity venous doppler ultrasounds were performed and revealed chronic venous insufficiency, a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70.”
“Importantly, there was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease,” she said.
All Trump’s test results “were within normal limits,” she said and he had a “normal cardiac structure and function, no signs of heart failure, renal impairment or systemic illness.”
The hand issue, she said, was linked to the aspirin he takes in a “standard” cardiovascular health program.


Afghan data breach unmasked UK spies, special forces: reports

Updated 19 min 11 sec ago
Follow

Afghan data breach unmasked UK spies, special forces: reports

  • The information was included in the mistakenly released spreadsheet
  • A UK official had accidentally leaked a document containing the names and details of almost 19,000 Afghans

LONDON: The details of more than 100 Britons, including spies and special forces personnel, were included in a massive data breach involving thousands of Afghans, UK media reported on Thursday.

The information was included in the mistakenly released spreadsheet, British newspapers reported, citing unnamed defense sources.

The leak was only revealed to the public earlier this week after a news blackout imposed by the previous Conservative government was finally lifted.

“It’s longstanding policy of successive governments to not comment on Special Forces,” a ministry of defense spokesperson said in a statement.

“We take the security of our personnel very seriously and personnel, particularly those in sensitive positions, always have appropriate measures in place to protect their security.”

But reports in the British media, including the Guardian newspaper and the BBC, said members of Britain’s intelligence service and special forces were among those listed on the spreadsheet.

Britain’s government disclosed on Tuesday that a UK official had accidentally leaked a document containing the names and details of almost 19,000 Afghans who had asked to be relocated to the UK.

It happened in February 2022, just six months after Taliban fighters seized Kabul, Labour’s Defense Secretary John Healey told parliament.

The breach and the resettlement plan to protect those involved from potential repercussions only came to light after a court-issued super-gag was lifted.

The nearly two-year-long court ban secured by the previous Conservative government prevented any media reporting of the leak.

In addition, parliament was not briefed and there was no public knowledge of the resettlement plan and the costs involved.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that Tory ministers have “serious questions to answer” over the secret resettlement plan while parliamentary Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said that the affair raised “significant constitutional issues.”

Some 900 Afghans and 3,600 family members have since been brought to Britain or are in transit under the program known as the Afghan Response Route, at a cost of around £400 million ($535 million), Healey said.

Applications from 600 more people have also been accepted, bringing the estimated total cost of the scheme to £850 million.

They are among some 36,000 Afghans who have been accepted by Britain under different schemes since the August 2021 fall of Kabul.


Trump will visit Scotland, where his family has golf courses, and will talk trade with Starmer

Updated 33 min 16 sec ago
Follow

Trump will visit Scotland, where his family has golf courses, and will talk trade with Starmer

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will head to Scotland next week, visiting areas where his family owns two golf courses and is opening a third, and will meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss trade ahead of an official state visit to Britain in September.
Trump’s trip from July 25-29 will see him visit Turnberry, home to a historic golf course and hotel he bought in 2014, and Aberdeen, where one Trump golf course has operated since 2012 and a new one is set to open in August, the White House said Thursday.
During the trip, Trump plans to meet with Starmer to “refine” a previously announced trade deal, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Trump himself had previously said he’d be discussing trade with Starmer and said those talks would take place at “probably one of my properties” in Aberdeen, but the White House hadn’t previously announced the trip.
The White House hasn’t commented on whether the Republican president plans to golf while in Scotland, though he played his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018, ahead of traveling to Helsinki, Finland, for a high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The president’s son’s Eric and Donald Jr. are now running the family business, The Trump Organization, while their father is in the White House.
During her briefing with reporters, Leavitt also said Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to the United Kingdom from Sept. 17-19 and meet with King Charles.
That trip had already been confirmed by Buckingham Palace and will mark Trump’s second state visit to the United Kingdom after he first had one in 2019. No US president had previously been invited for a second state visit.
“He is honored and looking forward to meeting with his majesty, the king at Windsor Castle,” Leavitt said.
Trump’s first golf course near Aberdeen, International Golf Links Scotland, is set to host an event on the European tour, the Scottish Championship, from Aug. 7-10. It will be the first time the course has staged a European tour event, though it held a tournament on the seniors’ tour in 2023 and 2024 and will do so again this year, the week before the Scottish Championship.
Located on the Ayrshire coast, around 200 miles  southwest of Aberdeen, Trump Turnberry is one of 10 courses on the rotation to host the British Open — the oldest of the four major championships in men’s golf — but hasn’t staged that event since 2009, before Trump bought the resort.


Ukraine offers its front line as test bed for foreign weapons

Updated 47 min 6 sec ago
Follow

Ukraine offers its front line as test bed for foreign weapons

  • Moroz said there has been strong interest in the scheme, but did not name any companies
  • Ukraine is betting on a budding defense industry, fueled in part by foreign investment

WIESBADEN, Germany, : Ukraine will let foreign arms companies test out their latest weapons on the front line of its war against Russia’s invasion, Kyiv’s state-backed arms investment and procurement group Brave1 said on Thursday.

Under the “Test in Ukraine” scheme, companies would send their products to Ukraine, give some online training on how to use them, then wait for Ukrainian forces to try them out and send back reports, the group said in a statement.

“It gives us understanding of what technologies are available. It gives companies understanding of what is really working on the front line,” Artem Moroz, Brave1’s head of investor relations, told Reuters at a defense conference in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Moroz said there has been strong interest in the scheme, but did not name any companies that have signed on to use it and declined to go into more detail on how it would operate or what, if any, costs would be involved.

More than three years after their invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces are pressing a grinding offensive across the sprawling, more than 1,000-km (620-mile) front line and intensifying air strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine is betting on a budding defense industry, fueled in part by foreign investment, to fend off Russia’s bigger and better-armed war machine.

Brave1 — set up by the government in 2023 with an online hub where Ukrainian defense companies can seek investment, and also where Ukrainian military units can order up arms — had drawn up a list of the military technologies it wanted to test, Moroz added.

“We have a list of priorities. One of the top of those would be air defense, like new air defense capabilities, drone interceptors, AI-guided systems, all the solutions against gliding bombs,” he said.

Unmanned systems in the water and electronic profile systems on the ground are also on Ukraine’s list of priorities, as are advanced fire control systems or AI guidance to make howitzers more accurate.