Matignon remains attached to article 3 of the immigration bill which provides for the creation of a residence permit for “occupations in shortage”, but the majority seems less and less united to defend this measure.
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Examination of the immigration bill begins in the Senate on Monday, November 6. As the deadline approaches, one article focuses all the attention, it is article 3. This article creates a new residence permit for undocumented immigrants who work in so-called “shortage” professions. that is to say the sectors which lack labor. A regulated provision, with conditions of allocation and renewal strict enough to limit its scope. But she remains a red rag for the right. She rejects it outright, because she sees in it the threat of a “call for air”, that is to say an incentive for new migrants to come and settle in our territory. However, the government needs the support of LR deputies to have its text approved. EDITORIAL.
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The majority seems less and less united to defend this new measure. This article 3 stirs up internal dissension and the right takes advantage of it. Rumor has it that Élisabeth Borne had suggested to the president of the LR group in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, during a meeting on Monday, that she could remove this article from the text. The Prime Minister denied this decline to the members of her majority in favor of this provision, starting with the president of the Assembly’s Law Committee, Sacha Houlié. Matignon remains committed to the creation of this residence permit but now faces a double pitfall. First, the reluctance of Gérald Darmanin.
The changing political climate
The Minister of the Interior is not a fierce defender of this new residence permit. He takes the boat in the other direction, the repressive aspect of the text, to win the rallying of the LR deputies. He is, for example, ready to extend the detention period for deportable people, to authorize the expulsion of dangerous foreigners, even if they arrived in France before the age of 13. To do this, he relies on the second pitfall facing the Prime Minister, the change in the political climate since the Islamist attack which killed Dominique Bernard.
The government is, of course, keen to reassure public opinion in the face of the terrorist threat. But to bury an unrelated measure which concerns a few thousand workers in catering or construction would also be an admission of weakness which would open other fractures within the majority.