The commission bringing together deputies and senators responsible for finding an agreement on the immigration bill resumed its debates on Monday after a four-hour suspension and a visit by majority leaders to Matignon, according to parliamentary sources.
The discussions of this joint committee (CMP), supposed to start at 5 p.m., were quickly cut short, due to a disagreement between LR and the majority on non-contributory social benefits paid to foreigners. LR wants to make them conditional on five years of presence in the territory (30 months for people who work), including personalized housing assistance (APL), which the majority for their part would like to see escape from these restrictions.
Leaders of the majority invited to Matignon
At the same time, a delegation of deputies from the majority in charge of the text was invited to Matignon while a blockage persists around social benefits paid to foreigners. A question which still divides the presidential camp and LR, at the risk of derailing their agreement which had nevertheless seemed imminent after tough negotiations.
The right wants to condition them on five years of presence in the territory, including personalized housing assistance (APL) which the majority on the contrary wishes to see escape from these restrictions. “The APL for us was a red line,” said MP Ludovic Mendès, of the presidential Renaissance party. “It is not negotiable,” added one of his colleagues, accusing LR of wanting to “call into question the agreement”.
“Table corner”
“The farce has lasted long enough,” stormed the environmentalist deputy Benjamin Lucas. “We cannot settle such fundamental questions on a corner of the table at the last minute,” he added, calling on the government to withdraw the text, as it had promised in the event of an “inconclusive” CMP. “Disgusting secret LR/Macronie negotiation on the level of discrimination and brutality that the extreme right wants to inflict on migrants,” said the indignant Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon on X.
The main obstacles seemed to have been removed before this meeting of seven deputies and seven senators from all sides supposed to seek the ultimate compromise. “These are editorial questions now,” explained LR MP Annie Genevard, who sits on the CMP, while warning that “until the writing is correct, we cannot say anything.”
Adding to the drama of the day, the executive had responded at the last minute to an ultimatum from the right by promising in writing, in a letter from Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, to “engage at the beginning of the year 2024 » a reform of State Medical Aid, this system which allows undocumented foreigners to benefit from medical care.
The president of LR Eric Ciotti also received his government letter from the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin who announced the acceleration of the deadlines for creating new places in detention centers (CRA).
Risky concessions
For Emmanuel Macron, who advocated “an intelligent compromise” on Friday and received Elisabeth Borne for lunch on Monday, this is a crucial stage of his second five-year term. After the surprise adoption of a rejection motion on December 11, which put an end to the debates in the Assembly, the Head of State decided to entrust a CMP with the search for a text which satisfied both his camp and the right.
To reach an agreement, he had to endorse a clear shift to the right at the risk of disuniting the presidential camp. Particularly with the concessions on benefits, intended to make the French social model less attractive but which could antagonize the left wing of the majority and make the communist leader Fabien Roussel say that the Macronists “lose their soul” by making “the choice of defend national preference.
Some elected officials favorable to the president nevertheless admit to counting on the Constitutional Council to censor several very right-wing measures, such as the tightening of family reunification or the establishment of annual migration quotas. The right also seems to have won its case on the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage, which would remain at the discretion of the prefects, or on the loss of nationality for dual nationals perpetrators of crimes against the police.
Vote uncertain Tuesday
If the latest dissensions are overcome, the text of the CMP will return to each chamber on Tuesday. The Senate’s vote seems certain, but that of the National Assembly is much more uncertain due in particular to the divisions in the presidential camp.
Elisabeth Borne is expected Tuesday morning to face the Renaissance deputies to try to convince the recalcitrants. “Despite the snakes swallowed, we are keeping the measures that we had taken”, positive one elected official, insisting on “the interest of showing that we are still capable of legislating”.
The members of the centrist Liot group, until now in support of the government, also risk dividing. And even the LR, reputed to be poorly disciplined, could count opponents in their ranks around the rebellious Aurélien Pradié.