For the second day of debates in the Senate on the immigration bill, Tuesday November 7, senators will focus on State Medical Aid (AME). The right, the majority among senators, is calling for the replacement of this aid, guaranteeing undocumented people access to care, with a much more restricted system. “We are attached to the principle of AME”, the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Franck Riester, assured Franceinfo on Tuesday morning. The debates with senators and deputies consist of “look how to improve this system”, he believes. On Monday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the AME, “an issue of humanity” And “public health”, while his Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is more open to the Republican proposal. Follow our live stream.
The Senate votes to establish “quotas” and toughens family reunification. The Senate adopted amendments on Monday evening adding two new measures to the government’s project: the establishment of migration quotas and the tightening of the conditions for family reunification. The government did not oppose these proposals from the senatorial right, adopted by a show of hands.
Divisions on article 3. This flagship measure of the bill, which provides for the possibility of regularization of undocumented workers in sectors with a labor shortage, is a red line for LR. But the party does not have a majority in the chamber to delete this article, which is held by its centrist allies. “If article 3 must remain, it will be impossible for us to vote on the text.” hammered the boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, Monday.
A contested text. An opposition rally to the government’s project was held on Monday in front of the Senate, while 35 associations and collectives highlighted during a press conference a text contrary to the “humanist principles”, pointing in particular to the possible elimination of state medical aid (AME) for undocumented immigrants, which the Senate wants to transform into emergency medical aid with a more restricted scope.