the deputies vote on a motion to reject, the government’s text is rejected even before its examination in the hemicycle

The immigration bill was swept aside by MPs before it was even debated in the Chamber on Monday, December 11. The National Assembly adopted, by 270 votes to 265, a motion to reject the immigration bill, with the votes of the left, the LR and the RN, inflicting a very heavy political defeat on the government. The motion was defended by the environmental group. Its adoption results in the interruption of examination of the text even before the substantive articles are discussed. If the support of the left for the rejection motion was acquired, the LR and the RN kept the suspense high throughout the day. “Your government allowed the Senate’s firm text to be trampled on in committee”told the minister the boss of the LR group Olivier Marleix, who is calling for a return to the version of the text adopted by the Senate.

The government can now choose to let the text continue its legislative journey in the Senate or in a joint committee – bringing together deputies and senators – or decide to abandon it. “All I want is for the government to continue, because it can do so, in its desire to provide answers to the immigration problem”, reacted for his part the president of the Horizons group, Laurent Marcangeli, member of the majority. The left and the RN welcomed the adoption of the rejection motion standing in the hemicycle, with left-wing deputies calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

This rejection is a snub for the latter, who bet on finding a way, particularly with the right, to get his text passed to the National Assembly, after its adoption in the Senate in a strongly toughened version. Gerald “Darmanin has tamed the small Macronist groups. But not the National Assembly. It feels like the end of the road for his law and therefore for him”, judged the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon on X (ex-Twitter). At the Socialist Party, the first secretary Olivier Faure estimated that Gérald Darmanin was “disavowed” and had to “draw conclusions”.