French President Emmanuel Macron faces a difficult week as lawmakers weigh up a controversial bill that toughens France’s stance on migrants, with even some of his own party reluctant to back it.
After France processed a record 100,000 asylum applications last year, Macron vowed to grant asylum faster but also to deport economic migrants more swiftly, while better integrating those who stay.
The new law will be presented to his cabinet Wednesday ahead of parliamentary debates that promise to be stormy, with migrant charities and left-wingers blasting the bill as repressive.
Staff at France’s asylum court and the Ofpra refugee protection office are even set to strike Wednesday over a law that unions have blasted as “an unquestionable break with France’s tradition of asylum”.