Associations and NGOs for the defense of foreigners called on Monday the government to “withdraw” its bill on immigration, which was the subject of a rejection motion in the National Assembly, opening a “period of uncertainty” about the future of this controversial text. The examination of this bill carried at arm’s length by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin ended Monday at the Palais Bourbon, where the deputies adopted this environmentalist motion by 270 votes against 265, aborting the debates even before until the substantive discussions have begun.
The government can now choose to let the text continue its legislative journey in the Senate or in a joint committee bringing together deputies and senators, or decide to abandon it.
“A shipwreck predicted”
“We must stop being stubborn and withdraw the text,” Fanélie Carrey-Conte, general secretary of La Cimade, one of the associations which organized a rally against this bill at the start of the year, told AFP. afternoon near the National Assembly. “What happened confirms what we have been saying for several months: this text is a disaster predicted. The government’s demagogic communication has put considerable pressure on this bill, which we have known from the start that there is no majority to vote for it,” she added.
The adoption of the rejection motion and the political explosion that accompanies it “opens a period of uncertainty, from which the worst as well as the best can come out”, observes Benoît Hamon, former socialist minister who now heads the NGO Singa. “We are satisfied with the rejection because the text is bad and worried us a lot, with a debate which took place under the yoke of the extreme right. Now, we must seize this opportunity to decree a break in this incendiary debate, which we saw although it could only lead to a policy very unfavorable to foreigners”, continued Benoît Hamon.
“It is in any case a snub for the Minister of the Interior, who wanted to bring this bill forward at all costs even though there was no urgency on the subject,” added the president of France Fraternités. , Pierre Henry. For him, the rejection in the form of “pantalonenade” in any case offers the opportunity “to have a debate on calm bases, why not via a citizens’ convention on migration”.