The Republicans relish and force the government to re-examine the text voted by the Senate

The right largely contributed to the failure of Gérald Darmanin and his immigration law, by voting for the rejection motion with the rest of the opposition on Monday, December 11. LR is delighted… but it won’t necessarily last.

LR certainly won a battle against Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Monday December 11. Without dividing too much for once, Eric Ciotti’s party passed the rejection motion alongside the opposition, stopping the debates on the immigration law in the hemicycle. Since then, there has been a slight scent of victory in the ranks of the right: “This is the first stage of the LR comeback!”, exclaims a deputy. Another assures that after “this good slap in the face to Darmanin, the government understands that when the right wants to be heard, it succeeds”.

Re-examination of the Senate’s tougher text on immigration

A meeting is held Wednesday, December 13 in the morning in Gérard Larcher’s office, in the Senate, with Bruno Retailleau, Olivier Marleix, Éric Ciotti and Annie Genevard. Together they must refine the strategy with a view to the joint committee, whose mission is to re-examine the text voted by the Senate and find a compromise. This involves trying to get seven deputies and seven senators to agree on a new text. Being four LRs out of 14, they know that without them, the presidential majority is not strong.

LR’s line is to bring to fruition the more coercive measures previously voted for by senators. “This is our condition for approving this reform,” insists Eric Ciotti. The boss of LR opens the way to a “for” vote, under conditions. “It has to be a Retailleau-Marleix text”, explains a deputy. The right is raising the stakes after the unraveling by the Assembly’s law committee, which redacted the text of the most repressive measures. LR hopes to twist the government’s arm but it is not won, because the risk is to explode the presidential majority. So we would have to accept and vote for a text that many initially did not want. A few days ago, LR deputies were saying in all tones that without revision of the Constitution, the Darmanin law would be of no use.

Extremism or compromise

The entire LR group in the Assembly is not in favor of voting for the senators’ text. There is always a hard fringe at LR, led by Aurélien Pradié, deputy for Lot, who has been urging people to vote against from the start, whatever the content. According to him, the right must be as radical as the RN and the left, by refusing to negotiate with Macronie. One of his colleagues insists: “If there is the regularization of undocumented workers, we will have to vote against.” However, there is indeed a regularization component voted by the Senate, at a minimum of course, but it exists. This extremism irritates internally: “Politician politics is enough. If it resembles the Senate text, we vote”, says an elected official. In short, the matter is not over, the right can still divide.