The rejection was expected, but castigated by the right, which the majority also strives to accommodate. On the third day of examination of the immigration bill, deputies on Wednesday rejected the abolition of State Medical Aid (AME) introduced by senators.
The deputies of the Laws Committee largely approved the deletion of this article, defended only by LR and the RN. Beyond the health of individuals, it is a question of “collective health”, defended the rapporteur of the text, Florent Boudié (Renaissance). However, it is not a question of “closing the debate”, a report on the subject, written by Patrick Stefanini and Claude Evin, must be submitted on December 4.
Approved on first reading in the Senate
The Senate, where the right is in the majority, approved at first reading at the beginning of November the replacement of State Medical Aid – health coverage for foreigners in an irregular situation – with Emergency Medical Aid, with a reduced basket of care and refocused on the management of urgent care, serious illnesses, acute pain, pregnancy-related care and even vaccinations. The rejection of this provision is not a surprise, the majority having said from the start that they would not retain it.
This did not prevent the right from protesting strongly: “The Assembly’s law committee has just reestablished the AME. As we announced, the government majority is unraveling all the work of the senatorial right. The law of government once again becomes a cheap little text which will continue to encourage mass immigration”, reacted on X the president of LR, Eric Ciotti.
Pledges to the right
Since Monday, however, the majority has been trying to give pledges to the right, seeing itself in return accused by the left of “courting (ir) after the right and the extreme right”, as MP Thomas said again Doors (LFI) Wednesday.
The Law Commission, for example, approved on Wednesday the principle of closer verification of the real and serious nature of the studies of foreign students, despite deletion amendments from the left and the majority. It also adopted an article aimed at excluding foreigners in an irregular situation from benefiting from a tariff reduction in transport, even if Mr. Boudié proposed rewriting it in a public session, to allow, for example, foreigners in an irregular situation to benefit from it to attend an appointment at the prefecture or a court summons.
On Tuesday, the commission agreed to review the conditions for granting the “sick foreigner” residence permit, despite a contrary amendment from the president of the Laws Committee, Sacha Houlié.
The day before, the rapporteur Florent Boudié tried to keep things simple on the issue of migratory quotas, refusing the right’s request to establish such quotas, but accepting the principle of non-binding quantified objectives that must be presented by the government. “There are no more migration quotas,” lamented LR MP Annie Genevard, castigating the “hypocrisy” of the presidential majority in its rewrite.
On several articles, the majority chose a pure and simple deletion, for example regarding an article which tightened the conditions allowing a foreigner married to a French person to benefit from a residence permit, or another proposing to include in the law increased registration fees for non-EU students.
“I am vigilant”
Faced with left-wing deputies, Florent Boudié defended his method. “I am not one of those who consider that because it is senatorial, it is not good”: “I am vigilant”, “I am careful”, “I analyze, but I do not necessarily say table shave”.
The elected officials also deleted on Wednesday evening article 2 bis A, added by the Senate, which planned to extend the forfeiture of nationality to dual nationals having committed a homicide on a police officer, a gendarme or any other person holding authority. public. A measure which “has no place in the bill”, underlined rapporteur Elodie Jacquier-Laforge.
“This article is one of the most shameful additions that the Senate has been able to formulate,” denounced communist deputy Elsa Faucillon, decrying an “attack on our fundamental principles.”
The majority had joined their voices with those of the left on Wednesday morning to reject the proposed constitutional law on immigration tabled by LR, to the great dismay of Eric Ciotti.