Ophélie Artaud
modified to
11:29 a.m., December 17, 2023
On the eve of the joint committee on the immigration bill, will the majority manage to find a compromise with the opposition, notably the Republicans? Guest of the Grand Rendez-vous d’Europe1/ CNews/ Les Echos, Éric Woerth, Renaissance deputy for Oise and quaestor in the National Assembly, returned to the possibility that the deputies may not manage to find an agreement, and that the text never reaches the National Assembly. According to him, if there is no text, “it will be a political defeat for France and the French.”
For Éric Woerth, this text “requires consultation, compromise, a spirit of responsibility” between the different political groups, but also within the majority. “When I say that the Senate text suits me, I understand that it does not suit a certain number of my colleagues in the same majority, that we must try to amend it while respecting the effectiveness of this text: great firmness on the management of migratory flows, on the management of foreigners in France, illegal immigration…”, he explains. According to him, all members of the joint committee must “make an effort”.
The majority ready “to make concessions”
For several days, tension has been rising within the macronie. After the rejection motion voted last Monday by a majority of deputies in the National Assembly against the immigration bill, the text will be re-studied on Monday by the joint committee (CMP). If CMP members reach an agreement, the bill will return to the Assembly and can be debated. Otherwise, the text will be definitively abandoned.
An unthinkable scenario for Éric Woerth, who emphasizes that “the majority wants an agreement” and is ready “to make concessions”. He also warns that “if there is no agreement in CMP, someone will necessarily bear responsibility.” According to MP Renaissance, if there is no text, this would mean “that we have not succeeded in creating a text to protect the French against poorly controlled immigration, we have not succeeded in meeting the standards of the European Union. […] The French will conclude that power is perhaps powerless, and that LR is not a government party.”
The absence of consensus would be a “serious political defeat”, concludes Éric Woerth, who hopes for “a text in which we will finally have the means to better fight against immigration”.