In the National Assembly,
It was enough to see the closed faces of the left, this Tuesday morning in the National Assembly, to understand their deep dismay. Rebels, ecologists, communists and socialists wore their saddest faces in the corridors of the Palais-Bourbon. Far, far from the “hurrahs” launched in the Hemicycle on December 11, when the rejection motion inflicted a severe slap on Gérald Darmanin.
A week later, the Joint Commission (bringing together seven deputies and seven senators) toughened, article after article, the government’s initial bill on immigration. The compromise, agreed at the end of the day, was welcomed by Les Républicains… but also by the National Rally. Enough to plunge a fractured presidential camp into a political crisis of rare intensity.
“It’s a real turning point”
Annual quotas defined in Parliament, reinstatement of an offense of illegal residence, regularization of undocumented workers under the responsibility of prefects, and even a written commitment from the Prime Minister to reform State Medical Aid (AME) “in start of the year 2024”… Over the course of the day, the “compromise” text between the presidential majority and the right began to resemble like two drops of water the project voted on in mid-November by the senatorial right. Even the less than effusive Olivier Marleix, boss of the LR group in the Assembly, boasted in front of the journalists: “The right Pasqua [ancien ministre de l’Intérieur] is back ! This text is a real turning point,” he declared, even daring to ironically about the “swallowing difficulties” to come for the left wing of the majority.
The latter did not appear much at the Palais-Bourbon. We saw mainly the left, desperate to see the macronie turn to the right. “I hope that this Immigration law will end up directly in the trash given the dangers it poses to our country,” sighed Mathilde Panot, the leader of the rebels. “The text is written under the dictation of the LR with the applause of the RN. The government has given in on all its red lines, and even the navy blue lines,” added Christine Pires-Beaune, MP and spokesperson for the PS group.
Crisis within the majority
Strongly challenged during Questions to the government, the latter responded to the Nupes attacks with an impossible hubbub. “Where was your good morals when you flirted with the votes of the National Rally for the rejection motion? Where were your left-wing values when you made a pact with Marine Le Pen? », replied Gérald Darmanin dryly. Rarely, the Minister of the Interior himself went down to the Salle des Quatre Colonnes to provide after-sales service, understanding that the discomfort also affected his own majority. Because Marine Le Pen, smelling the right move, had just announced that her group would vote for the agreement resulting from the CMP. “We are delighted with a real ideological victory for the RN since the national priority is now enshrined in this law,” she said, referring to the differences in deadlines between foreigners and French people to receive social benefits.
A kiss of death for the executive, shaken very quickly by other claps of thunder. The president of the MoDem group, Jean-Paul Mattei, but also the president of the Law Commission, Sacha Houlié, and several elected officials immediately announced their opposition to the text concluded with the right. Same thing for a handful of ministers, including Aurélien Rousseau, Sylvie Retailleau and Patrice Vergriete, who even put their resignation in the balance. With a majority on the verge of implosion, and while Elisabeth Borne no longer held much control, Emmanuel Macron decided to take things in hand. The president urgently convened a meeting with his parliamentary majority at the Elysée. The vote, which is now shaking the macronie, is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. in the Assembly.