French ministers have been forced to defend the handing out of resident permits for jobs in short supply amid heavy criticism of the policy from right-wing politicians.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has defended the French Government’s plan which he declared would be pursued with “efficiency and justice”.
The move has been attacked by politicians from Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) who are threatening to table a motion of no confidence in the French Assembly.
The chairman of the RN delegation to the European Parliament MEP Jean-Paul Garraud slammed the policy and accused Emmanuel Macron’s government of “lies, contempt and hypocrisy”.
Mr Garraud wrote on X: “The Minister of the Interior therefore wants to regularise illegal immigrants on French soil on a massive scale in order to use them as labour for unwanted jobs!
“Underneath this false humanism lies a political will not to stop all this mass immigration. Why tell us that you want to stop the flow of illegal immigrants when you’re getting ready to regularise them at every turn?
“Lies, contempt and hypocrisy, that’s the reality of the government’s discourse.”
The plan also came under fire from the President of Generation Frexit Charles-Henri Gallois who branded it “irresponsible”.
Mr Gallois said: “An irresponsible call for ever more illegal immigration at a time when the figures for legal immigration are already unbearable and prevent any assimilation.
“It is therefore a bill in favour of more immigration, despite Darmanin’s words.”
French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has sought to reassure critics.
She said: “We’re in a country where the unemployment rate is 7 percent, so the priority … is really to enable jobseekers as a priority to get back into work.”
