“I have no difference with Gérald Darmanin”, ensures Tuesday August 9 on franceinfo Sacha Houlié. The deputy Renaissance (ex-LREM) has just tabled a bill to grant the right to vote in municipal elections to all foreigners, arousing criticism from the right, the National Rally and the Minister of the Interior, “firmly opposed to this measure”, according to his entourage at franceinfo. Sacha Houlié says to himself “agree with him when he says that foreigners are not judged for what they are but for what they do”. “The positions that I defend are part of this philosophy.”
franceinfo: Why file this bill which is not in Emmanuel Macron’s program?
Sacha Houlie: This is a proposal that I made in my personal campaign for the legislative elections. I therefore tabled it at the end of the extraordinary parliamentary session in order to be able to present it to my political group as of the start of the school year, so that we can debate it and possibly take it up again. The right to vote for European Union nationals in local elections already exists in France. No one is surprised that a Spaniard or a Bulgarian can vote in municipal elections. But it has questioned many people that the English can no longer do it since Brexit.
Are you sending a message when Gérald Darmanin’s immigration bill is scheduled for the fall?
I don’t need to send a message. I defend political causes. For example, I intend to table another bill at the start of the school year on foreign workers. They hold important positions in our country, whether in construction, catering, hospitals or as engineers. Today, all employers ask not to deport them so that they can continue to work.
I have the greatest indulgence and the greatest respect for all people who seek to integrate, to work and to be part of France, but I have no difficulty in ensuring that people who do not respect not the rules of our country be expelled.
“I have no difference with the Minister of the Interior, I agree with him when he says that we do not judge foreigners for what they are but for what they do. positions that I defend are part of this philosophy.”
Sacha Houlié, Renaissance MPat franceinfo
Is it the role of the President of the Law Commission to invest himself in this way in the public debate?
I think that the role of a president of the Commission of the Laws is to have convictions and to carry them. It is to have the conviction that civil rights are not excluded. When we have people who are active in our associations, who develop the local fabric and who participate in schools or in municipal projects, it does not shock me that they can have a voice in the matter.
To have this kind of debate, when we have others on what is integration, immigration and our relationship with people who do not share our nationality but who may have common destinies with us, I think that is asking the right questions of our country. It turns out that the National Rally wanted to make it a controversy rather than a subject of debate, but I’m ready for it. This attempt at destabilization is indifferent to me.