After a night of disagreement in the Joint Commission between the LR and the majority on the immigration bill, the points of friction still seem to be at their strongest between the right and the presidential majority. Speaking to Sonia Mabrouk, Sylvain Maillard, MP for Paris and president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, believes that the main disagreement concerns the conditions for the payment of social benefits. Thus, the right wants to condition social assistance for foreigners on five years of presence in the territory (two and a half years for those who work).
This measure is accepted by the presidential camp except for personal housing assistance (APL). “We will not agree to condition the APL on a national preference,” insisted the president of the Renaissance group in the Assembly. “This is not our project, it will never be our project. I have said it clearly and we remain firm on this principle,” he continued.
In the compromise negotiated between the majority and the LR, “we never talked about the APL and we do not accept the principle that the APL are conditional on a national preference”, he underlined. He also believes that national preference is a “far-right project”.
Align everyone on the same principle
For the APL, the majority do not want any difference between French workers and foreign workers in a legal situation. “Or else, we align everyone on the same principle, otherwise there will be no agreement,” insisted Sylvain Maillard.
“A Congolese nurse, a French nurse, would they not have the right to the same conditions?”, the MP was further indignant. He suggested that we could “for example align the length of residence required for French expatriates. When they return to France, they have a waiting period of three months on average,” he said.