Migrant quotas set every year, the return of the double penalty, the imperative of “assimilation”, the reduction of State Medical Aid … The Republicans tabled their constitutional bill on Friday on immigration.
The right spends the second on immigration, one of its favorite themes. The Republicans officially filed, Friday, May 26, their proposed constitutional law on immigration. The other additional text, an ordinary bill, will be in a few days. The ambition of the right, in his words, is to“stop mass immigration”.
>> Have the Republicans taken over Marine Le Pen’s entire program for their immigration law?
To achieve this, LR is first focusing on setting migrant quotas, the ceiling of which will be determined every year. “The law fixes each year the maximum number of entry authorizations (…) the government can distribute this number by category of authorization and by nationality”clarifies the text. No restrictions are provided for asylum seekers, but they will have to file their application, not in France, but from their country of origin or another non-European country, by contacting French embassies and consulates. The constitutional text also provides for the return of the double penalty, that is to say the expulsion of foreigners who have been sentenced to prison.
There are also changes that seem more symbolic, such as the imperative of “assimilation” for all those who want to “become French”. This provision will complicate the procedures for the children of foreign couples born in France who want to acquire nationality when they come of age. All these measures are therefore in the constitutional text which is ready.
The threat of a motion of censure
On the other hand, the other text, an ordinary bill, is being finalized. These are about fifty articles on which LR deputies and senators are still consulting who finally manage to coordinate, unlike the spectacle of division given during the sequence of retreats. The text must in particular tighten the criteria for family reunification and reduce State medical aid.
With these texts, the right wants to clearly put pressure on the government which, for its part, dithered on its own project. “When we saw their hesitation, we said to ourselves that we were going to take our responsibilities”, explains Éric Ciotti, visibly satisfied to have succeeded in drawing up his proposals in a few weeks. He’s talking about “both audacious and serious”. “Boldness is what the majority lack”even tackles the president of the Republicans, who still has not had a reaction from the Minister of the Interior.
>> Immigration bill: the “unity” of the majority will be the “compass” of the executive, warns Elisabeth Borne
Gérald Darmanin, who is supposed to relaunch a cycle of political consultation around the government project scheduled for the fall, only received an LR senator on Thursday 25 but not the party leaders. Senator from the Rhone, François-Noël Buffet describes a minister “listening”, “open to discussion” but does not say more about the content of the exchanges.
“It’s a really good shot, we drew first, we force the others to position themselves”, welcomes a parliamentarian. If Macronie does not follow them, the LR deputies are threatening a motion of censure which could well succeed. The question is whether the right really wants to pass 100% of these two texts. “For me, it’s more of a basis for discussion”deciphers a party executive, “we push the cursor to see how far the government can follow us”.