France
France exhibits high-range performance across all categories of the Global State of Democracy framework. It is among the top 25 per cent of countries with regard to all factors except Freedom of Association and Assembly, Freedom of Religion and Electoral Participation, where it performs in the mid-range. France is high performing in Participation, and has since 2020 successfully convened citizens’ assemblies to give the people a voice on topics ranging from climate change to assisted dying. Over the last five years, it has experienced notable declines in the Access to Justice factor, particularly related to men’s access to justice and to a lesser extent judicial corruption (including bribery with impacts on judicial decisions). There have also been declines in Freedom of Association and Assembly over the same period, affecting measures of associational and organizational rights, as well as the degree to which government controls and regulates the establishment and actions of civil society organisations in public life. France is a high-income country and has the seventh largest GDP in the world. It struggles, however, with mounting public debt and growing popular dissatisfaction with economic inequality. France’s economy is dominated by the services sector, and to a lesser extent manufacturing, tourism, and agriculture.
France’s main societal cleavages revolve around identity. The history of French colonialism has resulted in a diverse population in France today which struggles to reconcile values such as liberty, equality, fraternity and secularism with ongoing discrimination. A 1978 law that bans the collection of racial and ethnic data makes targeting the issue via effective public policy more challenging. France has struggled to handle the large number of unauthorized immigrants that have arrived over the years, and it has been criticized for the forced expulsion of Roma immigrants in 2011 and, more recently, for the treatment of refugees in detention centers. Far-right political parties have leveraged this identity cleavage to promote more narrow conceptions of French identity.
Despite recent declines in associational rights, participation remains robust and France has a long history of citizens taking to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with government policies or social issues. The "Yellow Vest" movement, which began in November 2018 in response to a proposed fuel tax increase, has quickly grown to encompass a range of grievances, including economic inequality and government corruption, and more recently, pension reform. The latter set of protests included thousands of new people who were previously unaffiliated with the movement.
Although legal frameworks that support gender equality and LGBTQIA+ rights are advanced, some of the remaining obstacles include physical and sexual violence, unpaid care and domestic work, as well as a gender gap related to wages, labour market distribution, and senior positions in enterprises, governments and other organizations, and particularly on corporate executive committees.
Monthly Event Reports
February 2024 | France enshrines the right to abortion in the Constitution
France became one of the first countries in the world to protect the right to abortion in its Constitution. The amendment to Article 34 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom for a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy. The amendment comfortably cleared the three-fifths majority vote in Parliament required for constitutional reform. It was passed by the upper house (the Senate) on 28 February, with 267 votes for and 50 against, and by the lower house (the National Assembly) on 4 March with 780 votes for and 72 against. A 2023 poll shows that 82 per cent of the French population believes abortion should be legal, among the highest levels of support in Europe. The government expressed that the decision to protect the right to abortion in the Constitution followed a rollback of abortion rights across Europe and around the world, including the 2022 decision by the Supreme Court to strip women of the right to abortion in the United States.
January 2024 | Immigration law enters into force, following changes by Constitutional Council
On 27 January, the administration published a new immigration law easing deportation procedures, which has immediate effect. Following protests mobilizing an estimated 75,000 people across France, the Constitutional Council struck down 35 contentious provisions, out of a total of 86 articles. Provisions that are removed from the law include a five-year wait for immigrants to access family and housing benefits, the introduction of immigration quotas, and tightened restrictions on family reunification. However, provisions to facilitate deportation of foreigners presenting a “serious threat to public order” were maintained. Three articles were censured as unconstitutional, and the rest were rejected because they were considered outside the scope of the law. While the law importantly includes a ban on detaining migrant children (article 40), reflecting a recommendation from UN experts, it has been criticized by rights groups who noted that considerable obstacles remain for people’s rights.
December 2023 | Parliament approves divisive immigration bill
On 19 December, Parliament approved new immigration legislation which made significant concessions to the far-right, with 349 votes in favour and 186 against. The legislation designates migration quotas, to be decided by Parliament, to limit the admission of immigrants (excluding asylum seekers) for a period of three years. In addition, the law introduces the possibility of stripping dual nationals of their French citizenship if they are convicted of intentional homicide and where the victim is a public authority (including police officers, soldiers, judges and administrative officials). The law introduces restrictions on access to benefits for the unemployed, requiring immigrants who are unemployed to be resident in France for five years until becoming eligible for family allowances and housing aid. It also restricts the conditions to be met for family reunification. The legislation has been condemned by NGOs including the French Human Rights League (LDH) and Human Rights Watch. On 25 January, the Constitutional Council will determine whether the legislation conforms with the Constitution and reserves the power to censure any articles where it perceives a conflict.
November 2023 | Spike in anti-semitic incidents sparks protests
The government has recorded an increase in anti-semitic violence in France linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The Interior Ministry reported 1,247 anti-semitic incidents in the first month after the outbreak of the war on 7 October (almost three times as many as in the whole of 2022). France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish population, totalling nearly 500,000 people, though the French Jewish population was decimated under the Vichy regime during World War II. In response, protests against anti-semitism mobilized an estimated 182,000 people in over 70 events across France.
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