France's powerful CGT trade union has called for nationwide "civil disobedience" following the adoption by parliament of an immigration law designed to toughen conditions for foreigners living in or moving to France.
CGT chief Sophie Binet on Thursday made the call for civil disobedience against the legislation, which she says calls into question France's "republican principles".
Speaking on RMC television, Binet said: "The CGT is calling for civil disobedience and the multiplication of actions of resistance against this law ... which rolls out the red carpet for the far right."
The CGT is in talks with other trade unions and NGOs and hopes to organise "large-scale initiatives" in the coming weeks.
🎙 Sophie Binet, secrétaire générale de la CGT, sur RMC : "Emmanuel Macron s'enferme dans un naufrage politique et moral. La CGT a la volonté de faire en sorte qu'il y ait des initiatives d'ampleur pour montrer sa mobilisation contre la loi immigration." #ApollineMatin pic.twitter.com/nS1pOZ7keN
— RMC (@RMCInfo) December 21, 2023
Departements refuse law
Under the reforms, immigrants from outside the EU will have to spend five years living in France before they can request welfare including housing allowances, family benefits and income support (APA) for the over-60s – reduced to two and a half years if they're working.
Some 32 left-leaning French departements – including Paris – on Wednesday said they would not apply the tougher conditions for the payment of the APA to foreigners.
"This is what needs to be done everywhere," Binet said, accusing Macron of "sinking into a political and moral shipwreck".
"The Titanic had started to sink with the pension reform, and now we're hitting rock bottom with this law, which embodies the world of money and the rancid, xenophobic ideology of the far right," she said.
L’Humanité du 21 décembre : l’appel de 150 personnalités contre la "loi immigration"
— L'Humanité (@humanite_fr) December 20, 2023
📰 : https://t.co/s4nZf9skga pic.twitter.com/2X6m1o7AWw
Open letter to Macron
Meanwhile a number of artists, trade unionists and left-wing personalities are calling on Macron not to enact the immigration law, which they say "paves the way for the worst" in an open letter published on Thursday by the Communist daily L'Humanité.
"The immigration law – a veritable stepping stone for the nationalist ideology of the far right – is a betrayal of [the] solemn pledge made to the French people" by Emmanuel Macron to block the far right, they argue.
"This law of hatred and division poses a serious threat to the fate of our fellow human beings, whether foreigners or immigrants, and therefore to the cohesion of our society.
"In the face of this danger, we, the citizens concerned about living together, call on the Head of State to take action."
The text has been signed by more than a thousand people, including at least 150 public figures, including ecologist senator Yannick Jadot, Greens leader Marine Tondelier, Communist leader Fabien Roussel, France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.
Others who signed the article were Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, actors Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Laure Calamy, former footballer Eric Cantona and writer Alice Zeniter.
