“We are making a lot of noise about not much” around Article 3, believes Senator François Patriat

“We make a lot of noise about not much” around article 3, declared Monday November 6 on franceinfo François Patriat, Renaissance senator from Côte-d’Or, while the upper house began Monday afternoon the examination of the immigration bill. Among the points of tension, article 3, which provides for a one-year renewable residence permit for undocumented workers in sectors with a labor shortage.

“This text of law is balanced in the sense that there are many more coercive means which will make it possible to expel or return those who are undesirable and at the same time to better welcome those who must be. I remind you that This is neither automatic nor irreversible.”insisted the president of the Rally of Democrats, Progressives and Independents group in the Senate. “Article 3 clearly states that it is a title given for one year, renewable, on professions in tension, in agreement with the employer, after having already had three years of presence in France and having worked eight months the last year in a French company”specifies the senator.

“The conditions are not easy, the automaticity is not real and it is for a year. So, we are making a lot of noise about not much. Nobody today believes in the pull of air effect.”

François Patriat, Renaissance senator

at franceinfo

The government is seeking “majorities”, explained Elisabeth Borne on Monday morning on France Inter. For his part, Gérald Darmanin is convinced of finding “a way of passage” and reiterated its opposition to the use of 49.3. François Patriat is also sure that common ground will be found: “I think that the majority of the Senate, today governed by Republicans and centrists, through its President Larcher, wants to ensure” that there be a Senate law on this text. “I think that negotiations are going well between the partners of the majority to ensure that we can achieve a text that is voted on in the Senate and which will then be amended in the National Assembly.”

But the opposition remains quite marked. Bruno Retailleau, the president of the LR senators, believes that “we cannot at the same time have a text that wants to expel more, while regularizing more”. For François Patriat, “the republican group is deeply torn” and he’s not sure “that Bruno Retailleau’s position is the strongest today. If he decided to maintain his amendment to delete article 3, he could possibly be beaten.”