Maybe once but not twice: the Republicans, who could vote for pension reform, are already warning that they should not be counted on for the text on immigration, “insufficient” and strategically dangerous for their credibility.
“I will vote against this text”, which must be presented to the Council of Ministers on February 1, the new president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti stated on January 18.
The deputy from the Alpes-Maritimes, known for his intransigence on the issue, assures him: the text “intends to impose firmer measures. Some go in the right direction but are largely insufficient.”
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, himself from LR, nevertheless stated at the end of December that “everything that the LR have always asked for, we offer”.
“Open the floodgates of immigration”
The text provides in particular for measures to facilitate expulsions (some 15,000 in 2022), especially those of foreign offenders. But LR goes against the other key idea of the text, that of a residence permit “jobs in tension” for undocumented immigrants in sectors with difficulties to hire (restoration, construction, etc.).
Such a measure “reflects the defeatism of the State that, because it cannot control immigration, tolerates it,” Éric Ciotti criticized again this Friday in a statement.
And it would lead to a “massive regularization”, assures the head of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau, according to whom the text “will open the floodgates of immigration”.
“The red cloth is that of regularization”
“We are working on counterproposals: quotas, a points system, halving of student immigration” (which represented some 108,000 titles in 2022) or “family immigration, trial residence permits…”, insists the LR deputy from Pas-de-Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont.
According to him, “the first source of illegal immigration is legal immigration (students, tourism…) If we don’t reduce them, we can carry out all the deportations we want, it won’t work.”
The right, which wants the reinstatement of the crime of “illegal residence”, also vilifies the “suction pumps”: “we are the country that offers the most advantages”, assures Bruno Retailleau when listing “family reunification”, “the right of asylum and “free access to health”.
The opinion of the head of senators LR is important because it is in the Senate that the examination of the text will begin, probably at the end of March. The objective is to “try to find an agreement with the Republicans,” says a source close to the file. “On the right, the red cloth is the one for regularization, so that is what could be removed.”
Without obligation
Would that be enough? Bruno Retailleau is one of the “hard” on immigration, which according to him “is not an opportunity for our country” due to a “link to insecurity.”
The method -going through the Senate first- “begins to become tense with us”, also assures a deputy, who recalls that on renewable energy the deputies have modified the text voted by the senators. But there are also strategic reasons for the LR’s hostility.
“If there’s one text we’re not willing to compromise on, this is it,” interim party chairwoman Annie Genevard said in November.
Because it is also the credibility of LR that is at stake before the 2027 presidential elections. “We cannot ask to vote for pensions and after immigration, we could also join the majority”, affirms Pierre-Henri Dumont, promising: “we will give you the ABC’s on the right”.
It is difficult for the government to make concessions on this issue, we reason from the right: “The ‘at the same time’ in immigration matters does not exist, or it is more immigration or it is less immigration,” said the head of the deputies on Wednesday. LR Olivier Marleix.
But another deputy continues to be suspicious: “Darmanin’s talent should not be underestimated, as he wants to speak to the right again.” In the macronie also, some remain skeptical: “I am greatly surprised by those who think that the right will vote for this text,” says a framework of the majority.
Source: BFM TV
