The French authorities want to adopt a new immigration law next year, a spokeswoman said, as the new right-wing government seeks to crack down on immigration.
“There will be a need for a new law,” government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told broadcaster BFMTV on Sunday.
The government’s intention to strengthen border and immigration regulations is a symbol of the rightward turn in French politics that has occurred since the summer’s legislative elections that produced a hung parliament.
The administration of Michel Barnier anticipates that the law will be brought before parliament in early 2025.
A Moroccan national has been identified as the alleged attacker in the September rape and murder of a Parisian student, a crime that has further stoked the immigration debate in France.
To effectively implement expulsion orders, the administration wishes to prolong the term of incarceration for undocumented migrants who are considered dangerous.
One of the options under consideration is to increase the maximum period of detention from 90 to 210 days, which is now only possible for terrorist offences.
“We don’t rule out the possibility of considering other provisions”, said Bregeon, adding that there should be “no taboos when it comes to protecting the French.”
Last December, France already passed an immigration law.
The bill was hardened to gain the support of the far-right and right-wing MPs.
But the country’s highest constitutional authority censured most of the new amendments which were dropped before President Emmanuel Macron signed it into law.
The measures struck down by the Constitutional Council “will serve as a basis for the new immigration bill”, a government source told AFP. “Some of them could be modified and there will be additions.”
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, the most conservative member of the government, has promised to toughen immigration laws. Within days of taking office, he has sparked controversy by declaring that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred”.
The hard-hitting measure last year was attributed to Retailleau, the former leader of the Republican party in the Senate.
Among other things, he wants to bring back the crime of unauthorised residence.
Former chairman of Barnier’s team and current leader of Macron’s Renaissance party in parliament, Gabriel Attal, stated on Monday that a new immigration law did not appear to be a “total priority.”
“Adopting a law for the sake of a law makes no sense,” he told broadcaster France inter.
He said “the priority is to act so that the state can truly control who enters and leaves” France.
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