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Without going so far as to apply Marine Le Pen’s program, the text voted by Parliament takes up several ideas proposed by the far-right party.
The government passed its immigration bill, but at what cost? The text proposed by the joint committee and adopted by Parliament on Tuesday December 19 came out particularly tough compared to the government’s initial version. Marine Le Pen was also satisfied with this new version, speaking of“a law toughening immigration conditions”. And the 88 deputies of the National Rally finally voted in favor of the bill.
The text is even “an ideological victory”, according to the leader of the far-right deputies. An observation shared by the left, which castigated “a lepenized presidential minority”in the words of rebellious MP Marianne Maximi on X. “A text which deals with foreigners, voted with the extreme right, by the extreme right and for the extreme right, I would never have believed that it was possible”also spear Green MP Benjamin Lucas in the Hemicycle.
“A trap set by the RN”
Discomfort has set in among the majority, caught between the accusations of the left and the vote of the National Rally. “The Senate text [sur lequel est basé le texte final] is far-right on many measures”, estimated a deputy from the left wing of Renaissance, to franceinfo, before the vote. Another parliamentarian denounced him “a trap set by the RN”who passed “all weekend saying that the text was not right to finally vote for it”as a way of appropriating it.
Several provisions of the bill effectively recall Marine Le Pen’s program for the 2022 presidential election. The text adopted by parliamentarians plans, for example, to reinstate the offense of illegal residence, abolished in 2013 by François Hollande. Interviewed on France Inter, Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right party, welcomed the progress on the subject “family reunification”. The bill effectively tightens the conditions for family reunification, in particular by increasing the length of stay required for applicants (from 18 to 25 months) and the need to have resources available. “stable, regular and sufficient”. However, we are far from “the ban” of the device desired by the RN.
“Even if there is notable progress on the themes defended by the party, we cannot speak of a complete ideological victory for the RN.”
Jean-Yves Camus, political scientist specializing in the far rightat franceinfo
On the question of housing assistance, at the heart of the negotiations between the majority and LR in the final straight, the text plans to condition them, for non-European foreigners in a legal situation, to five years of residence or 30 months of professional activity. However, the RN has been campaigning for a long time to reserve this aid for the French only.
“A gigantic step towards standardization”
Another ambivalent point, the question of land rights, which the RN would like to abandon. Without going that far, the text provides that young foreign adults born in France will no longer automatically obtain nationality, but only if they request it between the ages of 16 and 18. This is precisely what prompted Eric Bothorel (Renaissance) not to vote for the project, he explains to France 3 Bretagne.
Faced with the result of the parliamentary discussion, the RN is flaunting its victory. On France Inter, Jordan Bardella explained that he was happy that we “now speaks of national preference”a proposal defended by the far-right party for years.
“The majority and the Republicans, by partly taking up our concepts, validate not only our findings, but also our measures.”
Renaud Labaye, secretary general of the RN group in the National Assemblyat franceinfo
By deciding to vote for the bill, the National Rally added a tactical dimension to its ideological offensive. A trap from which the majority had difficulty extricating themselves on Tuesday evening, to the point of seriously imagining a pure and simple withdrawal of the text. “The RN has just taken a gigantic step towards standardization”worries an executive from the Les Républicains party.
For Jean-Yves Camus, the debates “risk strengthening the RN, which is already at almost 30% in the latest polls for the European elections, because people generally prefer the original to the copy”. However, continues the researcher, “the main objective of the RN, which does not appear in the law, is a system where immigration would be completely stopped and where there would be a differentiation of rights between the French and others”.