“The conditions are met to achieve” an agreement, believes the leader of the centrist senators

Hervé Marseille was the guest of “8h30 franceinfo”, Saturday December 16, 2023.

“We worked intelligently with Ms. Borne and Mr. Darmanin, the conditions are met in our eyes to succeed” to an agreement in the joint committee on the immigration bill, says Hervé Marseille, president of the centrist Union group in the Senate, Saturday December 16, 2023 on franceinfo. Seven deputies and seven senators will meet on Monday, December 18, at 5 p.m., to try to find a compromise on this text. The Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior have increased consultations in recent days, after the rejection of the bill by the Assembly.

“I find it hard to imagine that after a year, with all the palinodies [changements d’opinion] which have followed one another since March, we have not arrived at a text”says the senator from Hauts-de-Seine. “I don’t know what the French would think if they noticed on Monday evening that there was no text from the joint committee”, he warns. An agreement, yes, but on what basis? “By definition, the working basis is the last text voted on, that is to say that of the Senate”replies this experienced parliamentarian.

Therefore, he does not intend to give in on article 4 bis of the Senate version, on the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage. “We are attached to this article, there is no reason for us to modify it”he warns, because “this text, in our eyes, is the result of a compromise by the senatorial majority, in particular the centrist group”. “It’s something quite banal: it’s the prefects who are called upon to regularize the files of people who work in so-called ‘shortage’ professions”, he explains. So, “there must be no criminal record, they must have worked at least eight months in the last 24 months, etc.”. The initial version of this article was less restrictive.

State medical aid debated in another text

Another subject that the president of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) discussed with Élisabeth Borne and Gérald Darmanin, during a meeting on Wednesday, “emergency medical aid, which was the subject of debate”. This system replaces state medical aid, intended for undocumented immigrants, in the Senate version. The centrist suggests that he will be excluded from a possible agreement between senators and deputies. “This may give rise to a different text at the start of the school year, in January-February”he said, especially since “it is a subject which is called a legislative rider, which legally does not a priori have its place in the text”.

There is time for negotiations, but there will come a time when the government will also have to make concessions, according to him. “There is also a limit to all this, which is that the Assembly was not able to vote. As with pensions, it is the Senate which brings a text. At some point, it is necessary as well as the senatorial majority [la droite et les centristes]like the opposition of the Assembly [la droite en tête], can vote for this text. It’s not just the demands of the presidential majority, they just had to obtain a text!”he says.

Find the entire “8:30 a.m. franceinfo” from Saturday December 16, 2023 :