French President Emmanuel Macron faced cracks within his ruling alliance on Wednesday after parliament passed a toughened immigration bill, spurring the resignation of the health minister amid tensions over the new legislation,
Reuters reports.
The bill illustrates a rightward shift in politics in much of Europe as governments try to curb the rise of the far-right by being tougher on immigration.
A compromise between the centrist president's party and the conservatives, the new legislation, which was voted late on Tuesday, also showed the difficulties for Macron of governing without a parliamentary majority, which he lost last year.
Other governments across Europe have also opted for tougher migration policies, and the European Union itself reached an agreement on Wednesday to reshape its migration and asylum rules with the aim to limit the number of incoming migrants.
In the Netherlands, the far-right's Geert Wilders topped elections last month after the previous government collapsed over immigration. In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing deep divisions within his party over asylum policies.
In France, Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau resigned in protest over the immigration bill.
"It's not possible for me to defend this text," Rousseau, a former Communist, told Le Monde daily.
The tougher rules - including migration quotas, making it harder for immigrants' children to become French citizens, and delaying migrants' access to welfare benefits - were added to the bill to win the support of right-wing lawmakers for its passage.
The bill makes it easier to expel undocumented migrants, while watering down plans to loosen curbs over residency permits for workers in labour-deprived sectors.
Those conditions caused unease among Macron's more left-leaning lawmakers, and dozens either abstained or gave it the thumbs-down in a vote on Tuesday.
Macron was set to defend the migration law in a TV interview in the evening.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne rejected talk of a crisis in Macron's camp.
"We've done our job, we wanted a text with useful measures that our citizens were calling for," she said, adding: "Now let's move on."
