France’s Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would prohibit undocumented immigrants from getting married in the country, as part of the government’s efforts to tighten restrictions on illegal immigration. The draft law has been criticized by the left, which argues that it is unconstitutional.
Read More: France’s Le Point newspaper showing the shadow of a Boeing 747 …
The legislation, backed by immigration hardliners Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, was approved in its first reading by the French Senate, with 227 votes in favor and 110 against. The bill must now pass through the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, before becoming law.
French authorities are moving to tighten immigration policies and strengthen border controls, a shift that reflects the country’s changing political landscape following last summer’s legislative elections, which resulted in a hung parliament.
The proposed legislation aims to crack down on sham marriages and close existing loopholes that enable undocumented immigrants to obtain residence permits or acquire French nationality through marriage.
However, the bill contradicts a 2003 ruling by the French Constitutional Council, which stated that a foreigner’s irregular status “cannot in itself be an obstacle to the marriage of the person concerned.”
Greens senator Mélanie Vogel criticized the measure, calling it “a full-scale attack on the Constitution,” while Socialist Corinne Narassiguin condemned it as an attempt to exacerbate “an anxiety-provoking climate of xenophobia and racism.”
Read More: France Calls on Israel to Withdraw from Golan Heights
The initiative was sparked by an incident in northern France, where a town’s mayor was taken to court by a former mosque leader after refusing to officiate his wedding in 2023. The legal dispute gained national attention, and the mosque leader was subsequently deported.
Under French law, marriages must take place in city halls.
The Senate vote came days after a separate case, in which prosecutors summoned the mayor of the southern town of Beziers, Robert Menard, for refusing to officiate a wedding between a French woman and an undocumented Algerian man in 2023.