“at this stage, we cannot speak of an agreement”, warns Eric Ciotti on the eve of the joint committee

The president of the Les Républicains party announced on Sunday evening that he was expecting several elements of clarification during the day on Monday.

The evening of Sunday, December 17 was busy for the government, the majority and the Republicans, after intense discussions around the immigration bill. But what did these exchanges give? “At this stage, we cannot speak of an agreement”declared Sunday evening to AFP Eric Ciotti, the president of the Republicans, after a third meeting in Matignon of LR officials around Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

At the end of a meeting which lasted more than two and a half hours, the president of the Les Républicains party indicated that he was waiting “for tomorrow [lundi] Morning” A “letter which must be addressed to the President of the Senate on the timetable for a reform of the AME [Aide médicale d’Etat pour les étrangers sans papiers] that we want to see achieved at the beginning of 2024”.

He also said he expected from the government “commitments” in favor of “accelerated means of removal and expulsion of illegal immigrants”judging “too slow” the government’s timetable to create 3,000 retention places in 2027. “We also ask in the same letter for commitments to accelerate the issuance of consular passes, particularly with the Maghreb countries, so that removal procedures can move away from the ridiculously low execution rates that we encounter today. hui”he said.

“We have consolidated all the major achievements of the Senate”

On the other points under debate, he assured that the principle had been “act” that foreigners in a regular situation “who do not work” must have five years of presence in the territory to benefit from social benefits. “We are working on making a difference for those who work”he assured.

Eric Ciotti also said he was waiting for a “new” drafting of article 4 bis relating to the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage, expressing the hope that “these decisions are completely exceptional, very supervised, as the Senate did”. “We have consolidated all the major achievements of the Senate”assured Eric Ciotti, who was accompanied by the leaders of LR deputies Olivier Marleix and LR senators Bruno Retailleau.

No new meeting has been decided, according to them, but exchanges of letters are planned for Monday morning. The joint committee must meet on Monday at 5 p.m., before the Senate and the National Assembly vote on it on Tuesday.