A group of right-wing French mayors from the Les Républicains party have called for a ban on marriages between French citizens and illegal migrants.
The four argue marriage is now used as a tool for “backdoor regularisation” for the immigration status of many.
“It is unacceptable that mayors are legally compelled to officiate the marriages of individuals who are in the country illegally,” they wrote May 19 in Le Figaro.
While the mayors say they respect their official duties, they argue that it comes with responsibilities, including not bypassing the law.
“We refuse to be reduced to mere executors of administrative decisions that go against common sense. We do not want to become unwitting accomplices in a system that abuses the law, and we can no longer tolerate our voices being ignored,” they wrote.
“What should be a moment of unity, shared joy, and affirmation of the Republic too often turns into a delicate balancing act, where our vigilance clashes with the State’s inertia and the shortcomings of the legal system,” they added.
They argue mayors should have the power to deny marriages between citizens and illegal immigrants without facing legal proceedings.
Article 63 of the French Civil Code gives mayors the task of verifying the consent of future spouses.
This law was designed to serve as a protection measure against forced marriages, sham marriages, or unions of convenience or interest.
The mayors said they do not want to hinder the right to marriage, but to prevent it from “being used as a backdoor regularisation tool, in defiance of the law on foreigners and the authority of the State.”
Two of the mayors, Robert Ménard and Marlène Mourier, have both refused to marry people, suspecting a sham marriage was taking place.
Ménard faced legal proceedings after refusing to officiate the marriage, after an investigation by public authorities found no evidence of fraud.
On February 16, France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed support for a draft law prohibiting marriage when one spouse was in France illegally.
“We all know that marriage can be used to give immigrants legal status,” he said, signalling a possible shift in government policy.
On May 13, President Emmanuel Macron recognised even if France recognised the “freedom to marry as a constitutional freedom, they are not protecting the mayor”.
Macron expressed his wish the bill passed in the French Senate “be rapidly registered in the Assembly,” France’s lower house.
