LR deputies call for a referendum of shared initiative

The deputies LR Aurélien Pradié and Pierre-Henri Dumont estimate in a tribune at the Sunday newspaper (JDD) (article reserved for subscribers) that we now need “going from an under-qualified forced family immigration to an over-qualified chosen work immigration”and therefore proposing a shared initiative referendum (RIP).

Judging that “migratory chaos is gradually taking hold of the daily lives of our fellow citizens”the two elected officials consider that the postponement of the immigration bill, postponed until the fall by the executive, “constitutes a major political resignation”. They feel that “the quota policy is not up to the challenge of migration”.

For this, the two elected officials hope to file, “with many of [leurs] fellow deputies, (…) in the coming weeks, a referendum of shared initiative (RIP)”. The Constitution makes it possible to organize such a referendum on the initiative of at least 185 parliamentarians, supported by a tenth of the voters (4.87 million). The use of a RIP has so far never succeeded.

To be able to expel a foreigner who has been criminally convicted

Aurélien Pradié and Pierre-Henri Dumont wish to focus their proposal on “the improvement of the return rates of illegal immigrants by automatically freezing the issuance of visas, residence permits, money transfers and public development aid for any country which does not grant at least 50% of the consular laissez-passer necessary to deportation”.

They will also propose to condition “at five years of legal presence on the territory access to non-contributory benefits”. Finally, they are asking for the reinstatement of the double penalty which allows the expulsion from French territory of a foreigner convicted of a criminal offense once his sentence has been served.

At the end of April, Elisabeth Borne, who does not have a majority in the Assembly, reached out to the Republicans on immigration by calling for a “compromise”. She had also ruled out the possibility of a referendum requested by the right.