No, Emmanuel Macron sees nothing “dishonorable” to his action. Accused by the left and part of his camp of having sacrificed republican values to snatch the vote, the day before, on the “immigration” bill, the head of state, questioned by journalists from “C à vous” , on France 5, reports, this Wednesday, December 20, one by one the blows that have been dealt to him over the last twenty-four hours. ” Every time “, we specify at the Elysée.
Banging his fist on the table, the President of the Republic “assume” this “courageous law”, according to him. Too bad if the text, modeled by The Republicans (LR), themselves seduced by the theses of the National Rally (RN), fractured its majority and shook certain ministers. Left-wing Macronists worried about the questioning of the automaticity of land law, the introduction of “national preference” for the payment of family allowances and the extension of the criteria for forfeiture of nationality. “Is this an ontological break? The answer is no “scathes the tenant of the Elysée, evoking a text which aims to “fight against illegal immigration” and hears “ better integrate workers.
A real “ at the same time », he congratulates himself, calling for “calm the spirits”. Describing the law as “shield that we lacked”, even if he rejects the fantasy of a migratory submergence, he assures that this text “ will allow us to fight against what fuels the National Rally “. “ If we do not want the RN to become responsible, we must address the problem that feeds it,” he insists.
Let the far-right leader Marine Le Pen proclaim the “ ideological victory » of the RN is a “ bath boy maneuver”, he attacks. Of course, certain measures, “ symbolic”, aimed at coaxing the LR, allies of circumstance, were able to “ shock consciences “, but they are in no way, he says, consistent with the RN program. “ What has the National Rally been asking for years? Make foreigners’ children pay for school. Do we do it in this text? No “, he defends, noting that there is no question of reserving jobs for French people more than for foreigners. Certainly, land law is no longer automatic, but “is this shocking?” »questions the head of state, explaining that “integration is a pact”.
“The debate has ignited”
“The debate has ignited”, observes Emmanuel Macron, noting the excitement within his own ranks. Around sixty deputies from the presidential camp (Renaissance, Horizons, MoDem) voted against the text or abstained the day before in the National Assembly. Jean-Charles Larsonneur, deputy for Finistère, went further announcing that he was leaving his group on Wednesday: “The dam is broken, I say stop. » A few hours earlier, the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, had formalized his resignation. If other ministers have, for a time, toyed with the same idea, the government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, has brushed aside the hypothesis of a “ministerial rebellion “. And the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, took care to specify, in a press release, that if certain provisions of the text “clashed his beliefs”she did not intend to leave her position.
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