the standoff with LR continues… Decisive day at the CMP – L’Express

The conclave of deputies and senators who must decide the fate of the immigration law must resume, Tuesday, December 19, after being interrupted during the night, stumbling over last minute disagreements between the executive and the right which are causing clouds to hang on this text as on the future of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term.

⇒ Resumption of CMP work at 10:30 a.m.

⇒ A disagreement over family allowances

⇒ Reformed state medical aid

Already slowed down from its start at 5 p.m. by a 4-hour suspension, this joint committee (CMP), which many thought would end in the evening, was finally stopped at 12:30 a.m., and will not resume until Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. , with several dozen more articles to review.

While an agreement was emerging between the right and the presidential camp, the negotiations suffered from an unexpected dispute over family allowances. The right wants to make social benefits conditional on five years of presence in the territory (30 months for those who work), including personalized housing assistance (APL), which the majority on the contrary wish to see escape these restrictions. This Macronist position “does not comply” with the “commitments”, protested on the social network X the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau. The boss of Renaissance deputies Sylvain Maillard criticized the right-wing Les Républicains party for “not keeping” the agreement concluded before the CMP.

The measure, which has become tense to the point of threatening the text in its entirety, has already been postponed until the end of the debates, the time to find a new agreement. A delegation of majority deputies responsible for the immigration bill made a quick visit to Matignon on Monday evening before returning to their seats. “All subjects are possible on the APL,” said Renaissance deputy Guillaume Kasbarian, but these questions “are not resolved at midnight the day before” a vote on the entire text. “We will be extremely firm on the fact that the APL are part of the final text,” promised LR Pierre-Henri Dumont.

While waiting for the arrival of the famous article on allowances, the CMP validated several measures introduced by the right in the Senate: multi-year immigration quotas defined in Parliament, an offense of illegal residence punishable by a fine, or even a restriction access to reduced transport fares for undocumented immigrants.

Some elected officials favorable to the president nevertheless admit to counting on the Constitutional Council to censor several very right-wing measures, such as the tightening of family reunification or the establishment of annual migration quotas. The right also seems to have won its case on the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage, which would remain at the discretion of the prefects.

Adding to the drama, the Prime Minister responded at the last minute to an ultimatum from the right on State medical aid, promising in writing to “initiate at the beginning of 2024” a reform of this system which allows foreigners without papers to benefit from medical care.

If the latest dissensions are finally overcome, the text of the CMP will return to each chamber. The Senate’s vote seems certain, but that of the Assembly is much more uncertain due in particular to the divisions in the presidential camp. Élisabeth Borne, whose government survived a new motion of censure in the Assembly in the evening, was expected Tuesday morning to face the Renaissance deputies to try to convince the recalcitrants of the left wing. “Despite the snakes swallowed, we are keeping the measures that we had taken”, positive one elected official, insisting on “the interest of showing that we are still capable of legislating”.

This CMP is “a masquerade of democracy”, castigated the leader of the La France insoumise group Mathilde Panot, calling in unison with several left-wing elected officials for the withdrawal of the text. The executive had promised to do so in the event of failure of the CMP. “The majority has given in on all the red lines and has crossed the navy blue lines,” denounced the president of the socialist group Boris Vallaud, member of the CMP, to journalists.

Several thousand demonstrators also marched in France on Monday at the call of collectives to call for “resistance” against a “denial of republican values”.