The Rassemblement National (RN - National Rally) achieved a “historic” victory in the French National Assembly on Thursday, with the passage of a resolution denouncing the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement.
This marks the first time a proposal by a far-right party has been adopted by the legislative body. It happened during the RN’s parliamentary “niche” day, when the party controlled the agenda.
The resolution targeted the convention signed on 27 December 1968 between France and Algeria.
This agreement, established six years after the Algerian War, grants Algerian nationals favourable immigration conditions. Algerians can stay in France for over three months without a specific visa and obtain 10-year residency permits faster than other foreigners, including through family reunification.
Long demanded by right-wing and far-right factions, the motion to denounce the treaty passed narrowly by 185 votes to 184. The votes in favour included RN members, allies from Éric Ciotti’s UDÉ party, and roughly half of the conservative LR and centrist Horizons parliamentary groups.
Responding from Carentan, Normandy, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the agreement “belongs to another era” and should be renegotiated. However, he noted that “French foreign policy is not decided through parliamentary resolutions, although the vote must be respected.”
RN President Jordan Bardella called on President Emmanuel Macron to recognise the result of the non-binding vote and terminate the preferential treatment of Algerian nationals. Marine Le Pen expressed triumph over what she described as a “historic day” for the party.
Left-wing groups opposed the motion but garnered only 143 votes out of a possible 195. Criticism centred on Gabriel Attal and the Ensemble group, just 30 of whose parliamentarians voted against the resolution despite instructions to do so.
Attal, leader of the Renaissance party, had called previously for the 1968 treaty to be denounced, but was conspicuously absent from the Thursday morning vote. He attended a forum on sustainable tourism instead.
Later in the day, the RN faced defeat over its proposal to reinstate the “offence of illegal residence” for undocumented migrants.
A key article of the draft law was removed in a vote backed by left-wing Renaissance and MoDem deputies, prompting the RN to withdraw the proposal.
