In responsibility, we take note of the decision of the Constitutional Council on the immigration bill, which we respect. Parliament and the Constitutional Council share the same rule of law. The 1958 Constitution is a robust text which has made it possible to overcome many challenges until recently. There is no need to modify it. We are neither in favor of a referendum on immigration, nor of a modification of article 11 to broaden the scope of the referendum and will continue to remind everyone that there is only one way of revision. of the Constitution in article 89, by agreement between the two houses of Parliament.
However, we call for better dialogue between Parliament and the Constitutional Council. If we intend to continue to fully fulfill our mission as legislators, the Constitutional Council must clarify more clearly the meaning and contours of its jurisprudence on legislative riders. At the risk of otherwise seeing, over the course of censorship decisions, the right of amendment melt like snow in the sun.
In further responsibility, the Union Centrist group has tabled a bill to take over the provisions adopted by Parliament but invalidated by the Council in terms of form. Immigration must no longer be a taboo subject, unless we allow all populism to flourish in the face of a denial of reality. It is for this reason that the senators of the Union Centrist group were forceful of proposals.
If our fellow citizens are today among the most welcoming on the planet, a majority of French people are however in favor of adopting measures to control irregular immigration, which undermines our humanism and our rule of law. We consider that we have a duty not to allow a situation to persist which will inexorably lead to the strengthening of the extreme right and a dislocation of national cohesion. Immigration is a fact: we call for its regulation and a better integration policy because it is, overall, deficient.
The subject of immigration is before us
Today, France issues more than 4 million residence permits, which is a first! Europe is facing a growing rise in irregular immigration as well as asylum seekers from global citizens who are more economic migrants than freedom fighters. These migrants, who arrived on our territory in the absence of an integration policy, are ever further removed from our language, our levels of training, or even our civic system.
The subject of immigration is therefore not behind us but in front of us. We believe that the conditions of entry and exit from our territory, the management of our borders are part of the social contract which binds our fellow citizens. It is not showing national preference to recall that a country is able to decide who it welcomes and under what conditions. It is simply for the State the exercise of its sovereign prerogatives, which are also objectives with constitutional value.
Immigration is not a right. The Centrist Union group firmly maintains its three strong ideas: the rule of law, the sovereignty of our Nation and the conviction that this sovereignty is all the more solid as it is part of common action with other European countries. Clearly, Europe is the essential framework for developing a coherent migration policy.
This is the purpose of the bill that we have submitted to the Senate. It will then be up to the government to demonstrate the same spirit of responsibility by including the examination of our text as quickly as possible in the parliamentary calendar.
* Hervé Marseillesenator from Hauts-de-Seine, president of the Union Centriste group
Philippe Bonnecarreresenator from Tarn, co-rapporteur of the bill to control immigration, improve integration