“at this stage, we cannot speak of an agreement”, assures Eric Ciotti – L’Express

The obstacle course continues: a joint committee bringing together deputies and senators must decide on Monday the fate of the immigration bill, to bury it or reach a compromise version normally submitted to the vote of the two chambers on Tuesday.

⇒ The CMP meets from 5 p.m.

⇒ “At this stage, we cannot speak of an agreement”, according to Eric Ciotti (LR).

⇒ Discussions on social benefits

Made up of seven deputies and seven full senators, and chaired by the president of the Assembly’s law committee, Sacha Houlié (Renaissance), this CMP must meet behind closed doors from 5:00 p.m. at the Palais Bourbon. Until the end of the night ? One of the fourteen negotiators assured Thursday that if there were to be an agreement, it would be “finalized” even before the CMP.

“At this stage, we cannot speak of an agreement,” declared Sunday evening the president of the Republicans Éric Ciotti to AFP, leaving a meeting in Matignon with Élisabeth Borne. “It’s progressing well,” declared the president of the Renaissance group Sylvain Maillard.

The president of LR listed a certain number of requests, saying he expected from the government a firm commitment to legislate on State medical aid from the start of 2024, and a “new drafting” of the famous article 4bis, work of the Senate, relating to the regularization of certain undocumented workers in professions in shortage. He hoped that the government would commit to “accelerated means of removal and expulsion of illegal immigrants”, deeming the government’s timetable to create 3,000 detention places in 2027 “too slow”.

The right also intends for the government to make “commitments to accelerate the issuance of consular passes, particularly with Maghreb countries”. And brings back to the table his constitutional reform project without which, despite the “improvements” in Gérald Darmanin’s bill, “we won’t get there”.

Discussions are still underway concerning a particularly sensitive subject for the majority, that of social benefits paid to foreigners. The senators wish to impose on foreigners the requirement to prove five years of residence to be able to benefit from allowances such as personalized housing assistance (APL) or family allowances. “The principle of five years for those who do not work” has been “enacted”, according to Eric Ciotti.

“It’s called national preference. And it’s the program of the National Rally,” criticized earlier in the day the leader of the PS deputies, Boris Vallaud.

All day Sunday, the tenors of the majority took turns in the media to express their wish to reach an agreement, on a text according to them expected by the French, and the abandonment of which would play into the hands of the National Rally. “Today, there is a desire for agreement […] on the part of the government, on the part of the presidential majority and on the part of part of our opposition”, explained the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, saying she was “in favor of a compromise”, even if “compromise costs”.

“My deep conviction is that if on Tuesday we do not have a text that is voted on in the National Assembly and the Senate, it will be the victory of a single camp, the National Rally,” warned the Minister of Solidarity Aurore Bergé.