From Monday, the deputies will examine in the law committee this text with high political stakes for the presidential camp. Without an absolute majority at the Palais Bourbon, its fate is more than uncertain.
“Now the real fight begins”assène Pierre Cazeneuve. For the chosen one Renaissance, “it is extremely important that we can show that we are capable of passing an ambitious text”. For the majority, it is therefore time for mobilization. The deputies are preparing to examine, in the law committee, from November 27 to December 3, the very sensitive bill on immigration. The examination in the Hemicycle is scheduled a little later from December 11.
The text, carried by Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, is no longer entirely that of the government, but the version of the senators. In the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the fate of the bill “to control immigration and improve integration” seems uncertain. The possibility of a 49.3 is on everyone’s mind, even if the majority rule it out at the moment. Franceinfo gives you the keys to deciphering the debates at the Palais Bourbon.
The Senate toughened the bill
The senatorial version has nothing to do with the initial bill. The senators adopted the bill on November 14, by 210 votes for and 115 votes against – by amending it widely. After five days and four nights of sometimes heated debates, the senatorial majority of the right and the center managed to make this sensitive reform a tool of “firmness”. “We did not see how an agreement in the Senate was possible with a section on regularizations [des travailleurs sans-papiers]. Now, it has been done, compromise is always possible”praises Gérald Darmanin’s office.
In substance, the senators deleted the famous article 3 of the initial text, which proposed regularize “full right” people in an irregular situation working in “jobs in tension”, where there is a shortage of labor. They replaced it with article 4 bis. The latter provides for a residence permit granted by the prefects “case by case” And “exceptionally” in “strictly supervised procedure” and accompanied by conditions, including compliance with “values of the Republic”.
Elected officials in the upper house of Parliament also voted to abolish state medical aid (AME) to replace it with much more restricted “emergency medical aid”. They also drastically tightened the rules for receiving benefits for foreigners, called into question land rights and limited the possibilities of family reunification.
The text will be modified again
More than 1,500 Amendments have been tabled for examination of the text in the Law Committee. Unlike pension reform, La France insoumise did not rely on obstruction. “Our strategy in committee was not this. It consists of destroying what the Senate tabledexplains rebellious MP Andy Kerbrat. Before its passage in the Hemicycle, we must return to a questionable text.” The examination of the text in committee should therefore be completed.
On the left, we want to purify the Senate’s copy. “Sixty-three deletion amendments at the committee stage on our part, that must be a record”confides the socialist deputy Hervé Saulignac, who expects a discussion “rock and roll!” Several amendments will also be made by all four groups (EELV, PS, PCF and PS), in particular on the regularization of all undocumented workers, on theban on the detention of minors or on the ban on bone tests to verify the age of unaccompanied foreign minors.
The majority also intends to modify the version adopted by the senators. In particular the measure on the regularization of illegal immigrants working in professions in shortage. The general rapporteur, Florent Boudié, tabled an amendment to this effect, which has a consensus in the presidential camp. The prefect would no longer have “discretionary power”, as the Senate version provides. From now on, the representative of the State will have to notify his refusal of a request for regularization based on reasons enshrined in the law, such as a serious threat to public order or actions contrary to the principles of the values of the Republic. . The MoDem has also tabled an amendment aimed at reinstating article 4, deleted by the Senate, on the possibility given to asylum seekers from certain countries to work as soon as their application is submitted.
The left, the right and the far right oppose it
The presidential camp has the obligation to find allies to have the text adopted. However, the right, which could have been the majority partner on this bill, does not seem in a hurry to bring votes to the government. On the contrary. “The objective for us is to continue to toughen the text”, warned Olivier Marleix in mid-November. The boss of the LR group also insisted that he would table a motion of censure in the event of 49.3. It also conditions the position of the Republicans on the attitude that the majority will have when examining a proposed constitutional law on immigration, during their parliamentary niche on December 7. “We’re not going to hit very hard”confides an influential majority deputy, in the hope of not robbing the 62 LR elected officials.
On the left, the various parties are firmly opposed to this text considered far too harsh. “IWe must look at the facts, not fantasies about immigrationestimates environmentalist deputy Benjamin Lucas. We challenge the initial analysis of the text on a risk of ‘overwhelm’ [migratoire]about the fear and lies that have surrounded this debate for 40 years.” However, some could support the section concerning regularizations in professions in tension. As evidenced by the tribune transpartisan published In Release in favor of the regularization of illegal workers and signed by socialist, environmentalist and communist deputies.
For its part, the National Rally is a priori resolutely opposed to the text. “I’m not going to vote for him.”said Marine Le Pen, who chairs the RN group in the Assembly, on October 17 on France 2. The law project “is not going to provide additional tools to expel all those who, in our country, represent a danger”, she explained then. About ten days later, the former presidential candidate declared on France 3: “A small law with small measures, which improve the situation just a little bit, we can pass it.” New turnaround on France InterNovember 24: “As I am not a rabbit of the year, it is not because I am told article 3 is called article 4 bis that I am going to vote for it. I know that it is the even”assured the boss of far-right deputies.
The majority wants to avoid a 49.3
The negotiations therefore promise to be tough to get the text passed. In the meantime, the majority are clinging to a few positive signals : the boss of the socialists, Olivier Faure, thus warned, on October 31, on France 2, that he would not vote for a possible motion of censure from the right, because it would go “even further than what the government wants”. Same tone among environmentalists. “A motion of censure which takes up the fundamentals of the RN on immigration, you can imagine that we will not vote for it”confided MP Sandra Regol in Opinion.
The general rapporteur Florent Boudié is also delighted to count as allies the 21 members of the independent group Liotwith the appointment of Olivier Serva as rapporteur. “There is no deal at this stage”however contradicts MP Benjamin Saint-Huile. “We accepted the position of rapporteur without it affecting anything in the vote.” The future position of this heterogeneous group will depend on the text’s return to balance between “firmness” and “humanity”.
“The path of passage exists with a united and solid majority, with Liot, some LR who vote for and others who abstain and a little left on certain points”nevertheless wants to believe Pierre Cazeneuve. “We’re not going to get the LR vote, but an abstention wouldn’t be bad.”, abounds a framework of the majority. Some are also counting on the internal divisions of the right-wing group to extract these abstentions. Sunday, November 26, in the newspaper The gallerydix-seven LR deputies say they are ready to vote on the bill “if the spirit of the Senate project prevails” at the end of its examination in the Assembly; a more open position than the group’s management and which can give rise to hope for these abstentions. They are in fact essential to avoid a 49.3, which the vast majority of Macronist deputies do not want.
“If on the day of the formal vote we are within three votes, I think we should go to the vote. Even if it means losing.”
Florent Boudié, Renaissance deputy for Girondeat franceinfo
But, already, dissonant voices are being heard. “If we cannot find common ground within the majority, the mass is said, but if we have the capacity to find a satisfactory common wording, we will have the possibility of using all the tools of the Constitution at our disposal”delivers Renaissance MP Stella Dupont. “49.3 should neither be excluded in principle nor decided before discussion”, decides Horizons MP Philippe Pradal. If the government ever pushes through to have its text adopted, the risk of a motion of censure being adopted has crystallized the anxiety of the Macronists for several months.