Immigration: the right threatens to vote against the bill


Once maybe, but not twice. The Republicans, who could vote for the pension reform, are already warning that they should not be counted on for the text on immigration, “insufficient” and strategically perilous for their credibility. “I will vote against this text”, which should be presented to the Council of Ministers on February 1, affirmed the new president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti on January 18. The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, known for his intransigence on the subject, assures him: the text “pretends to impose firmer measures. Some are going in the right direction but they are very largely insufficient”.

Gérald Darmanin reaches out to the Republicans

The text provides in particular for measures to facilitate expulsions (about 15,000 in 2022), especially those of foreign offenders. But LR is headwind against the other key idea of ​​the text, that of a residence permit “jobs in tension” for undocumented migrants in sectors struggling to hire (catering, construction, etc.). Such a measure “reflects the defeatism of the state which, for lack of being able to control immigration, puts up with it”, further castigated Mr. Ciotti in a press release on Friday. And it would lead to a “massive regularization”, assures the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau according to whom the text “will open the floodgates of immigration”.

The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, himself from LR, nevertheless affirmed at the end of December that “everything that the LRs have always asked for, we offer it”. In an interview at Parisian this Saturday, Gérald Darmanin once again reached out to his ex-colleagues, saying he was ready to discuss “quotas to limit regularizations”, during the parliamentary discussion. But immigration is one of the markers of the right and LR intends to remember it. “We are working on counter-proposals: quotas, points system, halving of student immigration” (which represented around 108,000 titles in 2022) or even “family immigration, probationary residence permits… “, says LR deputy for Pas-de-Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont.

According to him, “the first source of illegal immigration is legal immigration (students, tourism…) If we don’t reduce them, we can do all the deportations we want, it won’t work” .

“Finding an agreement with the Republicans”

The right, which wants the re-establishment of the offense of “illegal residence”, also vilifies “suction pumps”: “we are the country which gives the most advantages”, assures Bruno Retailleau by listing “family reunification”, “the right of asylum” and “free access to healthcare”. The opinion of the boss of senators LR is important because it is in the Senate that the examination of the text will begin, probably at the end of March. The goal is “to try to find an agreement with the Republicans”, affirms a source close to the file. “On the right, the red rag is that of regularization, so that’s what could be removed.” Would that be enough?

Bruno Retailleau is one of the “hard” on immigration, which according to him “is not a chance for our country” because of a “link with insecurity”. The method – going first through the Senate – “begins to tense with us”, also assures a deputy, who recalls that on renewable energies the deputies have modified the text voted by the senators. But there are also strategic reasons for LR’s hostility. “If there is a text on which we are not ready to compromise, it is this one”, affirmed in November the interim president of the party Annie Genevard.

“Might as well join the majority”

Because it is also the credibility of LR which is at stake before the presidential election of 2027. “We cannot ask to vote for pensions and after immigration, we might as well join the majority”, affirms Pierre-Henri Dumont, promising: “we will give them the ABC of the right”. Difficult for the government to make concessions on this subject, we reason on the right: “The + at the same time + in terms of migration does not exist, it is either more immigration or less immigration”, assured the boss of deputies LR Olivier Marleix on Wednesday.

But another deputy remains suspicious: “we must not underestimate the talent of Darmanin who wants to talk to the right again”. In the macronie also, some remain skeptical: “Those who think that the right will vote for this text surprise me enormously”, affirms a framework of the majority.



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