France’s Senate voted Thursday to support a bill prohibiting illegal aliens from marrying in the country as the government intensifies a crackdown on illegal immigration. The measure—which the left labels unconstitutional—cleared its first reading in the upper house with 227 votes in favor and 110 opposed and is championed by immigration hardliners Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin.
The legislation now heads to the National Assembly, France’s lower house, for further debate. The move underscores a rightward shift in French politics, spurred by last summer’s legislative elections that left parliament deadlocked, with Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally (RN) winning the most seats of any single party.
The French authorities aim to curb sham marriages and seal loopholes that illegal immigrants exploit to secure residence permits or citizenship through matrimony.
This push defies a 2003 ruling from the French Constitutional Council, which declared that a foreigner’s illegal status alone cannot block their right to marry. Green Senator Melanie Vogel slammed the bill as “a blatant assault on the Constitution,” while Socialist Corinne Narassiguin accused it of fueling “a toxic atmosphere of xenophobia and racism.”
The proposal gained traction after a northern French mayor faced legal action from a former mosque leader, whom he refused to marry in 2023. That leader was later deported. French law mandates that all marriages occur in city halls, amplifying the stakes of such disputes.
The Senate’s decision also follows a recent incident where prosecutors called in Beziers mayor Robert Menard for rejecting a 2023 wedding between a French citizen and an Algerian illegal, spotlighting the growing tension over immigration controls in France.
