A postponement that seems like a maneuver to avoid a new setback. In the midst of a political and social crisis over the pension reform, the examination of the immigration bill that was to be studied in the Senate starting next Tuesday should be postponed, according to information from BFMTV.
Since the announcement of this text in autumn, led by the former LR Gérald Darmanin and the former socialist Olivier Dussopt, the executive has taken care to multiply the nods to the right as well as within the majority to round off the corners.
Senators who gave the text a twist
The Minister of the Interior had thus announced in the columns of the figaro offer “everything the LRs have ever asked for.” Several elements of the reform, however, tense the ranks of the right, starting with the creation of a residence permit for undocumented workers in sectors in tension.
Meeting in the law committee last week, the senators also gave the gift by toughening the bill with amendments aimed in particular at making the conditions of access to family reunification much more restrictive.
The Senate, “is no longer a long and calm river”
However, the president of the Senate warned Emmanuel Macron during a lunch on Tuesday at the Élysée that the bill ran the risk of not being approved by the upper house.
“The Senate is no longer a long, calm river,” as translated by a ministerial adviser.
The tone inside the Luxembourg Palace has hardened considerably in recent weeks during the debates on pension reform.
A bill largely purged of irritants
If the senators voted on the first or second reading for the bill, the government is far from having a plenary session. 6 elected LR thus voted against the pension reform and 19 abstained on March 16 for the last vote.
As for the centrists, with whom the right leads the upper house, more than half of their group voted against or abstained. And it will not be the macronistas, who only have about twenty senators, who will change the course.
Well aware of the situation, Gérald Darmanin submitted to the president proposals to divide the immigration bill into several legislative sections. Therefore, the Minister of the Interior is initially considering a text with measures that are considered more acceptable to LRs, such as the reduction of deadlines for asylum seekers and the simplification of the code for the entry and stay of foreigners.
LR and Renaissance tickets
The points considered most divisive for the right and therefore politically more complicated could be defended in another way. The creation of a residence permit for work under stress or even for health professionals in the face of the explosion of medical deserts could be integrated into a majority bill.
Gérald Darmanin also hopes to convince the right to seize a text on foreign criminals in its own parliamentary niche. In order to “make life miserable for immigrants in an irregular situation”, as the minister had explained, the right could agree to take measures to reinforce the application of the obligations to leave French territory (OQTF).
The recalcitrant right for future texts
Beyond the immigration bill, the government’s difficulties in passing this text are probably just a taste of the coming weeks.
In the National Assembly, no less than a third of LR deputies voted in favor of the inter-party motion of no confidence to oust Elisabeth Borne. This makes it increasingly difficult for the government to obtain a majority for its future bills, in the context of a relative majority.
Aurore Bergé also summed it up very well on Monday afternoon after the rejection of the motion of no confidence. We have to ask ourselves “how are we going to do tomorrow specifically so that other texts are debated”, asserted the president of the macronista deputies in TMC.
Source: BFM TV
