French MPs and senators will resume wrangling over an immigration bill on Tuesday after a last-minute disagreement stymied negotiations that had stretched late into the night, with President Emmanuel Macron’s government hoping to salvage a flagship reform.
French authorities have been seeking to push through legislation to harden France’s immigration law, but members of the right-wing and left-wing opposition last week joined forces to vote down the draft without even debating the measures.
The centrist government, which does not have a majority in parliament, has been locked in frantic talks with the opposition parties to rescue the proposed legislation.
By Monday afternoon, a key member of Macron’s party told on condition of anonymity that an agreement on the text of the bill was “practically a foregone conclusion”.
A mixed parliamentary commission consisting of seven upper-house senators and seven lower-house lawmakers met from 5:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) on Monday to hammer out a compromise text, but the meeting was interrupted after just minutes due to policy disagreements, including access to social benefits.
The session resumed after a four-hour suspension and continued until half past midnight, when the negotiations snagged on a disagreement over family allowances.
If there is a compromise on the text, the bill could be put to a vote in both chambers on Tuesday.
The deadlock has been deeply frustrating for Macron, who many see as a potential lame duck if he has to spend the rest of his term without being able to implement his reform agenda.
Observers said that to push through the reform, Macron’s government risked granting too many concessions to the far-right, which insists the bill is not tough enough.
