PARIS (Reuters) – An agreement was reached on Tuesday in the joint committee (CMP) on the government’s bill relating to immigration in a tougher version denounced by the left, which accuses the government of compromising with the ideas of far right.
The National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen will vote in favor of the text defended by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who accepted most of the modifications made by The Republicans, the majority in the Senate, to obtain an agreement.
“I thank the spirit of responsibility of our partners, who are the senators in particular, who finally allow us to be able to take very strong measures against irregular immigration, to integrate foreigners and to regularize those who work,” declared to the Assembly the tenant of Place Beauvau.
In front of the press, Marine Le Pen, double finalist in the race for the Elysée, spoke of an “ideological victory” for her party, which the presidential camp denies.
On the left, the president of the socialist group in the Assembly Boris Vallaud denounced “a CMP of shame, a great moment of dishonor for the government” of which he castigated “the collusion with the theses of the extreme right”.
Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, this text on immigration – a subject of concern for the French according to opinion polls – was the subject of months of negotiations, going so far as to lead the entire opposition to band together to vote last week on a rejection motion which deprived the National Assembly of debates on this eruptive subject.
Majority votes, where the left wing and the centrists of the MoDem have expressed their reservations, could be missing during the final vote scheduled for Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. local at the Palais Bourbon, two hours after that of Luxembourg.
“MOMENT OF TRUTH” IN THE MACRON CAMP
The Renaissance president of the Law Commission, member of the CMP, Sacha Houlié will vote against, according to La Chaîne Parlementaire. And according to Le Figaro, several ministers, including those of Health and Transport Aurélien Rousseau and Clément Beaune, have put their resignation in the balance.
“This is the moment of truth,” Renaissance MP from the left Patrick Vignal told Reuters, who for his part will vote in favor of the text.
Emmanuel Macron also met Tuesday at the end of the day with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the group presidents and party leaders of the majority in order to take stock of the situation after the agreement reached by the CMP, reported the Elysium.
One of the points of disagreement within the 14 members of the CMP – whose political color reflects that of Parliament – concerned the question of the payment of social benefits to foreigners in a legal situation, ultimately subject to a waiting period of five years for people not working, which its detractors consider to be an illustration of an unacceptable “national preference”.
The text voted on in the CMP takes up a number of measures adopted in the Senate in the direction of a clear tightening of the reception conditions for immigrants in France, with in particular the establishment of an offense of illegal residence and of a deposit prior to arrival. installation of foreign students.
It establishes the forfeiture of nationality for dual nationals who have been sentenced to sentences exceeding ten years for crimes against members of the police.
In terms of regularization, it gives prefects the power to regularize undocumented immigrants in sectors with recruitment difficulties such as construction and catering.
After the vote in the CMP, around fifty associations, unions and NGOs, including the Human Rights League, denounced in a press release the bill “the most regressive in at least forty years for the rights and conditions of life of foreign people, including those who have been in France for a long time.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, with Benjamin Mallet, Bertrand Boucey and Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Kate Entringer)
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