It is one of the major texts of the opening parliamentary year. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wants to find a majority for his immigration law. But the presidential camp is divided on the subject and the oppositions have such antagonistic positions that it seems difficult to bring them together. A small hope of rallying part of the Nupes emerged last week with a transpartisan column published in the press, but the union of the left is divided.
“It was a mistake to sign this platform with elected Macronists who are only there to give themselves a humanist veneer” : the sentence is irrevocable and it is signed by the environmentalist deputy Aurélien Taché. The text, which calls for maintaining the regularization of undocumented immigrants for professions in tension in France, has sowed discord at Nupes. Because, explains LFI MP Andy Kerbrat, who participated in discussions around the writing of this column before withdrawing, “we understood after a while that the objective of this call for regularization was only there to get the text across”. However, this one leans too far to the right for the left which cites the facilitation of the expulsion of undocumented immigrants.
Divergent strategies in the Nupes
The signatories, however, defend their decision. “We had to get our foot in the door”justifies a close advisor to the communist boss Fabien Roussel. “The official position of the PCF is the regularization of all undocumented immigrants, but”, she explains, “we are in the opposition, in the minority, and if we want to obtain at least some progress, we must play the game of compromise.” Said differently by the environmentalist deputy Sabrina Sebaihi, also a signatory, “we ask a lot to get a little”.
But the signatories claim another aspect of this strategy: to confront the left wing of Macronie with its contradictions. “We cannot want regularizations and vote in favor of ultra-repressive measures”. The objective is above all that this text never comes to fruition, we whisper in Nupes, “because no one among us will vote for it in its entirety and the right and the extreme right will not want it if it includes regularizations.”
Who manipulates who?
“Those who think they are burying the text are wrong”judge l’Insoumis Andy Kerbrat, “because Gérald Darmanin doesn’t care about this transpartisan initiative.” Sabrina Sebaihi recognizes this, the platform first “made a mess of the Nupes”. And that was also the objective, recognize signatories from the Macron camp.
For LFI, the goal is now to “bring everyone to their senses” and that the Nupes votes unanimously ” against “ the text. But ecologist Aurélien Taché is worried: if the “naive” who believed in the outstretched hand will, according to him, change their minds, the “cynical” who wink at the National Rally electorate, like the communist Fabien Roussel, could play the fool’s game until the end.