Marine Le Pen (center), leader of the far-right Rassemblement National party, in the Assemblée Nationale, Paris, on October 30, 2025. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
The "cordon sanitaire," a political red line that had long kept the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party marginalized, was hanging by a thread. On Thursday, October 30, it finally broke. For the first time since 1958, and the first time in the Fifth Republic, the Assemblée Nationale passed a bill put forward by the far right. With 185 votes for and 184 against, MPs adopted a resolution to condemn the December 27, 1968, French-Algerian agreement. The motion had been scheduled by the RN as part of its special parliamentary session, in which they are allowed to control the day's agenda for debates.
Legally, the vote is not binding: President Emmanuel Macron can always dismiss the Assemblée Nationale's request to repeal the 1968 agreement, which established a special regime for Algerian nationals in France, compared to the law on other foreign nationals. Symbolically, however, it gave the RN, formerly known as the Front National (FN), a historic institutional victory, and one on their signature issue: fighting immigration. "It's not a turning point, it's a step," said RN leader Marine Le Pen, despite having expressed doubts about her chances of success the day before, given the Assemblée's current composition.
