an immediate test for the executive in the Assembly – L’Express

After months of twists and turns, the very controversial immigration bill, emblematic of the difficulties of a government without an absolute majority, arrives in the hemicycle of the National Assembly, but it is immediately threatened by a motion of rejection which could interrupt its exam starting this Monday.

⇒ The Minister of the Interior defends the text at 4 p.m.

⇒ A motion for prior rejection will be put to a vote.

⇒ Ciotti would like to keep the Senate version of the text.

At 4:00 p.m., the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who is strongly politically committed, will defend this text which aims to accelerate the procedures for asylum applications, facilitate the expulsions of foreigners deemed dangerous and the regularization of undocumented workers in certain professions in tension. Several hot points will therefore be discussed. L’Express takes stock in this article.

But in the process, the bill will be subjected to a first crash test: the vote on a preliminary rejection motion tabled by environmentalists. If left, right and National Rally (RN) united around this motion, it could be adopted and immediately interrupt the examination of some 2,600 amendments which must be discussed over two weeks, including weekends.

The parliamentary shuttle should then continue on the basis of the Senate text, significantly more to the right than the one rewritten by the deputies in committee. It would be a twist of theater which LR and the RN intend to maintain the suspense until the opening of the session.

“There are arguments for and arguments against. The argument against is that obviously we want to debate because Mr. Darmanin says everything and the opposite. The pros are that we are head-on opposed to this law which creates a new immigration channel” with regularizations, summarized Marine Le Pen, with a group of 88 deputies.

While the Nupes has imploded, LFI deputies, communists, socialists and ecologists want to show that they can come together on a “common cause” against “a useless and demagogic bill” according to LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard.

Unlike the law on pensions, the minister insists that he does not want to resort to 49.3, on this point in agreement with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne who considers in a small committee that it is necessary to go to the vote to confront the right with its responsibilities .

Calling for a “compromise”, Gérald Darmanin “reaches out” to the LR on the reestablishment of the offense of illegal residence or the supervision of regularizations. And he promises them a reform of state medical aid (AME), one of the markers of the right, at the beginning of 2024. He will be able to rely within the presidential camp on the deputies of Edouard Philippe’s Horizons party who proposed on Sunday to limit possible regularizations with “quotas”.

For LR boss Eric Ciotti, the adoption of this motion “would lead to a new debate on the Senate text”, the “only” one which is “suitable”. But some LR deputies are reluctant, in particular among the 17 signatories (out of 62) who said they were ready at the end of November in a forum to discuss with the government. “Arithmetically, there are more opponents than a majority, since we have a relative majority,” admitted Gérald Darmanin. But “it would be a denial of democracy not to debate,” he judged Monday on Europe 1/Cnews. “It would be incomprehensible, the Assembly would shoot itself in the foot,” added its president Yaël Braun-Pivet on RTL.