The most restrictive immigration law passed in France in decades was adopted on December 19 after several days of negotiations between the right-wing Les Républicains party and the government's Renaissance party.

The far-right party welcomed an "ideological victory” of their ideas. But the legislation could fracture the presidential camp. Several voices criticize the law from within the Renaissance party and the government itself.

A number of deputies voted against or abstained, and some ministers put their resignation on the line a few hours before the vote. The day after the law was passed, Aurélien Rousseau, minister of health, resigned from the government.

Sacha Houlié, president of the Assembly's law committee and a figure of the leftist bloc of the Macron party, said Wednesday morning on French radio RTL that some measures in the law were too harsh.

"I do not agree with the Pasqua or Sarkozy measures that I have fought all my political life (…) I think that there is sometimes an excessive nature in these measures (…) For all these reasons, I did not want to vote for this text.”

A 'vote of shame'

Left-wing parties all expressed their dismay, and even anger, on Tuesday evening after the vote in the National Assembly. The group Les Écologistes, a French green party, called it a “vote of shame.”

France Insoumise MP Manon Aubry called it "the most xenophobic law in our history,” while her colleague Mathilde Panot, leader of the leftist LFI MPs, called it an "attack on fundamental rights never seen in this country for at least 50 years.”

Olivier Faure, head of the Socialist Party (PS), did not mince words either.

"We have witnessed a historic shift: the renunciation by the Head of State of all our founding principles and the end of the republican dam [against the far right] which allowed him to come to power.”

'Completely uninhibited xenophobia'

Migrant rights advocacy groups are also unanimously opposed to the immigration law. Around 50 organizations, including the League for Human Rights and Utopia 56, signed a press release in which they condemned the text for "leaving the field open to completely uninhibited xenophobia”.

NGOs say the bill is "the most regressive in at least 40 years”.

They fear that "in the absence of a residence permit, the lives of a growing number of foreign people in France, extremely precarious, will be made hellish. The principles of equality, solidarity, humanity, which founded our Republic, no longer seem to be a legitimate compass for government action today.”

On X, migrants rights advocacy group La Cimade wrote: "Faced with this ideological victory fully claimed by the far-right, we are dominated with the seriousness of the moment and the fears for the future of hundreds of thousands of foreign people, for our entire country.”

Amnesty International called it "a dangerous law, disrespectful of the most fundamental rights of exiled people.”

Some associations, like Utopia 56, say they will fight the text. "We will not let this happen, we will rise up and we will win. Their hatred and their laws will never destroy our solidarity.”

The Federation of Solidarity Actors, which brings together 900 associations, announced on Wednesday that it was taking "the necessary steps for the examination by the Constitutional Council of measures contrary to the fundamental principles of solidarity and fraternity inseparable from our Republic.”

The associations say they are "seriously concerned" about "respect for the principles of solidarity and in particular unconditionality, the situation of people and the conditions for the fight against poverty.”

A law 'contrary to the spirit of the Enlightenment'

The law also sparks outrage in academia. It establishes quotas for foreign students and a deposit for those under student visas aimed at covering the cost of possible 'removal costs”.

The presidents of around twenty major public universities spoke out against measures "contrary to the spirit of the Enlightenment”.

"These measures unworthy of our country (…) seriously endanger the strategy of attractiveness of French higher education and research, and harm the ambition of making our country a major player in international scientific and cultural diplomacy,” they wrote in a press release.

Large private schools also protested the law. In a column published by Le Parisien, the leaders of three major business schools also denounce measures "which seriously threaten our international competitiveness".

"Far from being solutions," these measures are "disproportionate obstacles which risk compromising the future of French higher education on the long term,” they wrote.