After months of speculation and postponements, the immigration bill finally arrives before Parliament. Once is not customary, it is first the Senate which will examine, from Monday November 6 at 4 p.m., the government text, defended largely by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. Senators will have one week to vote or not on this bill, at the heart of political debates. From the end of November, the National Assembly will take over. But, at the opening time of the session, the fate of this text remains more uncertain than ever. Follow the debates in our live stream.
A text that aims to be balanced. This bill includes a repressive component for “be tough with delinquent foreigners” and one “integration section” For “people who work”, in the words of Gérald Darmanin. “The government’s line is to be tough on the bad guys and be nice to the good guys”, summed up the Minister of the Interior a few months ago. Clearly, a very Macronist “at the same time”, which runs the risk, in a situation of relative majority, of displeasing both the right and the left.
An article that has become “a red line” for the right. The majority, which hoped to ally with LR on this text, can only note the firm opposition from the right. At issue: Article 3, which provides for the regularization of illegal workers in professions in shortage. The leaders of the Republicans, who denounce “a call of air”have established this article as “Red line”. They threaten to table a motion of censure if the presidential camp were to draw a 49.3 to have the text adopted.
Uncertainty hovers in the Senate. Examination of the text by the Senate had in fact already begun: the bill was adopted in committee on March 15. But its study was interrupted after the adoption of the pension reform. The senators will therefore resume their debates directly in public session, Monday, on a version of the text already strengthened by the senatorial majority of the right and the center. LR senators are not completely aligned with their centrist allies, although they are essential to building a majority.