A call from the foot to Emmanuel Macron or a criticism of the Constitutional Council? The Interior Minister, who has already spoken several times in a referendum about immigration, gives part to the machine.
“When the law does not protect the French, it is necessary to change the law and I believe that in immigration to recover control, we need a referendum,” said Bruno Retailleau on Tuesday in CNews and Europe 1, in the middle of the presidency.
“A referendum on immigration will be necessary, including the Constitutional Council,” he says.
A very precise constitutional framework
However, the formula is not obvious. The issue of immigration does not explicitly appear in article 11 of the Constitution that frames the use of the referendum. The Head of State “can undergo the referendum any bill on the organization of public authorities, on the reforms related to the economic, social or environmental policy of the nation and the public services that contribute to it”, one can read there.
In order to address the issue of immigration in a referendum, therefore, it would be necessary to go to the field of social measures, such as Bruno Retilleau has already mentioned last February.
One might think, for example, the question of access to social benefits that could be conditioned with a certain duration of the stay in the French territory or in the matter of state medical aid (AME).
Not for Laurent Fabius
But the maneuver makes the constitutionalists doubt, beginning with the former secretary general of the Constitutional Council Jean-Eric Schoetl. “Immigration is a very large issue, which can refer to many areas of public action and, therefore, are not only related to economic and social policies,” said the former councilor -stated in January.
As for Laurent Fabius, president of the Constitutional Council, it had been very clear. “The migration policy does not enter the field of referendum,” said the socialist of the world in 2024.
Richard Ferrand, who is now at the head of the institution, he, for the moment, is well stored to take a position on the subject.
Emmanuel Macron Mute
But to request the Constitutional Council on the issue that would then judge the constitutionality of a presidential decree on the issue before its organization for state services, it would still be necessary for Emmanuel Macron to come out for this reason.
The Head of State has certainly mentioned his desire to ask the French to “decide” on “decisive issues” during His wishes for 2025. But he never mentioned the specific issues he had in mind. As for François Bayrou, it is no.
François Bayroun may have relaunched the idea of a referendum this Friday night about the state of finance, cheered the door to an immigration consultation.
“What question do you ask you? ‘Are you in favor or against immigration?’ Do you really think it is a matter of referendum?
Censored agreements
Another problem that could raise a referendum on immigration and access to social benefits: that of its respect for the principle of the Constitution. A text subject to a referendum cannot be contrary to the Constitution, or even the “constitutional principles”, judged former Secretary General of the Constitutional Council Jean -éric Schoettl to Figaro.
In the last immigration law of 2023, several provisions in this direction were censored by the wise. Among these, there was in particular the packaging of family assignments to a presence in France for at least 5 years For unemployed people. HE Personalized housing aid (APL) was also packaged at 5 years Presence in France for people who did not work.
If they were censored on a matter of more than a background form, many constitutionalists had mentioned the fact that the caudine forks of the wise men would not pass.
Question of “proportion” and “human dignity”
“We cannot say that living in France for a certain number of years, working or having French nationality changes something in having a child. It must always, in the end, feed it,” said Benjamin Morel, a public law professor in Paris-2 with BFMTV.com.
Therefore, the measure could have been considered “disproportionate” and not respect “human dignity”, registered in the 1946 Constitution and included in that of 1958, currently applied.
Bruno Retailleau also regretted last September in LCI after his appointment within that one cannot “do in France, unfortunately for constitutional reasons, referendum on immigration.”
Source: BFM TV
