Immigration law: the 32 left-wing departments refuse to restrict the autonomy allowance

The revolt against the immigration law is growing at the local level: several departments led by the left, including Seine-Saint-Denis, announced on Wednesday that they would not apply the tightening of the conditions for payment to foreigners of the personalized immigration allowance. autonomy (APA). At midday, the departments of Seine-Saint-Denis and Lot publicly announced that they refused to apply the “national preference” provided for by the controversial law adopted Tuesday in the National Assembly with the votes of the National Rally. The Gironde department also indicated to AFP in the afternoon that it was following the same course of action.

6.38 million euros in 2021

“I will do everything possible to ensure that the Department is a republican shield against national preference. All the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis deserve solidarity and humanity, wherever they come from. We will continue to pay the ‘APA to foreigners in a legal situation”, declared on

“You know, in our country, an article of the Constitution, article 72, says that local authorities administer themselves freely. And therefore we also have the possibility of implementing public policies, actions, projects, voluntary services”, he indicated at the microphone of Europe 1.

The controversial immigration law establishes a period of five years for non-European foreigners in a legal situation who do not work, and of thirty months for others, before being eligible for benefits such as family allowances or APA, paid to people aged 60 or over who are losing their independence. APA payments represented an amount of 6.38 million euros in 2021, according to figures communicated to AFP by the Départements de France association.

“Ideas of Vichy”

Shortly before, the Lot department had been the first to oppose the new APA payment terms. “The Department of Lot, faithful to its values ​​of solidarity, refuses and will refuse to apply the principle of national preference for our elders,” said Serge Rigal (DVG, ex-PS), president of the departmental council, in a press release. which proposes to “create a new universal autonomy allowance which will give exactly the same rights to Lotois who would be excluded by this law”. According to Lot, article 19 of the immigration law, voted definitively on Tuesday, “establishes the principle of national preference” for the APA.

In an internal email addressed to agents of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, of which AFP was aware, Stéphane Troussel denounced a “law of fear, hatred and exclusion (…) which draws a border in law between French people and foreigners in a legal situation. “This is why the Department will continue to pay its benefits under the same conditions as today, to all the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis, whatever their origin or nationality,” he said. detailed.

The PS president of the Gironde departmental council, Jean-Luc Gleyze, estimated that “we are touching on a France which risks seeing the ideas of Vichy return, whitewashed”. “Here we are in a situation where we must no longer only guarantee universal rights, but first fight to protect them from dangerous electoral, financial and/or xenophobic logics,” he said in a statement sent to the ‘AFP.

The departments wish to maintain the personalized autonomy allowance which can go up to 940 euros per month for the most dependent people. To finance these measures, the departments will have to draw on their budget or increase their deficit, because the State will not cover these additional expenses.