The National Assembly rejects the immigration law, a rout for the government – ​​L’Express

After months of twists and turns, the very controversial immigration bill, emblematic of the difficulties of a government without an absolute majority, arrived this Monday in the hemicycle of the National Assembly. But a motion to reject, narrowly adopted by the deputies, interrupted its examination. Emmanuel Macron asked Elisabeth Borne and Gérald Darmanin for proposals to lift the “blockage”.

⇒ The motion for prior rejection of the immigration law was narrowly adopted

⇒ Gérald Darmanin submitted his resignation to the president, “who refused it”

⇒ Emmanuel Macron asked Elisabeth Borne and Gérald Darmanin for proposals to lift the “blockage”

Elisabeth Borne will bring together this evening the ministers concerned by the immigration bill rejected by the National Assembly, the presidents of the majority group, the president of the Law Commission Sacha Houlié and the general rapporteur of the text Florent Boudié. to establish the strategy,” Matignon announced to AFP.

Renaissance President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet will also be present at this meeting, said Matignon.

The rejection motion adopted by the National Assembly against the government’s bill on immigration is “a failure”, conceded Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on TF1’s 8 p.m.

“It is a failure, obviously, because I want to give the police, the gendarmes, the prefects, the magistrates the means to fight against illegal immigration,” said Gérald Darmanin, a few minutes after presenting his resignation to the President Emmanuel Macron, who refused it.

Gérald Darmanin “submitted his resignation” this Monday evening to Emmanuel Macron, “who refused it”, announced the presidency. The Minister of the Interior had arrived shortly before at the Elysée to speak with the Head of State after the surprise rejection by the National Assembly of his bill on immigration.

“The President of the Republic asked the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories to make proposals to move forward by lifting this blockage and arriving at an effective law,” added the entourage. Of the president. Elisabeth Borne will bring together the ministers concerned and the presidents of majority groups this Monday evening, Matignon said.

A few minutes after the vote on the rejection motion tabled by environmentalist deputy Benjamin Lucas, details of the vote were published on the National Assembly website. Verdict? The text was adopted by 87 RN deputies (out of 88), 40 Republicans (out of 62) – two voted against and 11 abstained; 28 socialists (out of 31), 21 ecologists (out of 23), and 17 communists (out of 22). Full and complete mobilization by the 75 members of the rebellious group who voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

Since this unprecedented disavowal in the National Assembly, calls for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior have followed one another. “Gérald Darmanin sins by inaction, by omission and by distortion. His bill does not contain any significant measure to regain control. In a functional democracy, he would resign,” writes Jordan Bardella, the head of the National Rally on X ( formerly Twitter). He followed in the footsteps of the leader of the RN group Marine Le Pen, who “rejoiced” at an “extremely powerful disavowal”.

On the left, Mathilde Panot calls on the Minister of the Interior to “withdraw his law” and “leave with it under his arm”. Words that echo the honorary president of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “Darmanin has tamed the small Macronist groups. But not the National Assembly. It feels like the end of the road for his law and therefore for him,” he tweeted in the wake of the vote.

Voting on a motion to reject opens the way to three possibilities. First, a return of the text to the Senate. The bill would then be taken up in its remodeled version by the upper house. Another scenario: the emergency convening of a joint committee, made up of seven deputies and seven senators. Their mission? Reach a compromise between the Senate version and that adopted by the Assembly’s Law Committee on December 2. Last option, which is also the least likely: the pure and simple withdrawal of the bill by the executive.

The ax has fallen. The rejection motion tabled by environmentalists was narrowly adopted in the National Assembly. “It feels like the end of the road” for Darmanin and his immigration law, judged Jean-Luc Mélenchon. After maintaining suspense until the last minute, the National Rally (RN) group and Les Républicains announced that they would join their vote with those of Nupes. “It will not lead to a dissolution, but there will be a call to order from the government. It is the response of the shepherd to the shepherdess after twenty 49.3”, affirmed an RN deputy to our colleagues from the newspaper THE World.

For their part, the Republicans ruled a few minutes after Gérald Darmanin spoke. At the end of a consultation, the president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti and the leader of the LR group in the Assembly Olivier Marleix called on their deputies to support the rejection motion tabled by Benjamin Lucas. In front of all the parliamentary groups which make up the hemicycle, the member for Yvelines argued that the vote for “the motion to reject in a moment is in no way an endorsement of my remarks”. And to give his word: “It will not be used as such.”

Enough to arouse the ire of the tenant of Beauvau, who belches. “Whatever this motion of rejection, no more moral lessons, no more humanism lessons,” he continued. “For a small, uncertain victory that will last a few seconds, you have compromised yourself and that will stick with you. Basques”.

“Who is afraid of debate? At least not the presidential majority. Who is afraid of debate? Those who are going into an unnatural alliance to agree so that the French do not see things moving forward and to disarm our police and gendarmes”, he had launched a few minutes earlier from the podium of the National Assembly. And to call for “compromise”. In the name, always, of “the general interest, ensuring that “the government is prepared to carefully study the 2,600 amendments tabled by parliamentarians”.

During his first speech at 4 p.m., Gérald Darmanin addressed his former political family, Les Républicains: “How can we demand firmness and deny the police, gendarmes and prefects the means to expel delinquent foreigners? How can we make the front page of the newspapers, go on television sets, hold meetings when the government and the majority arrive with provisions to refuse them and finally disarm the police and gendarmes? How can we knowingly oppose provisions that will allow us to expel or remove 4,000 delinquent foreigners?”

The government’s bill on immigration “rolls out a red carpet” for “the theses of the extreme right”, denounced union and association leaders, gathered this Monday near the National Assembly. This mobilization aims to “denounce the bill of shame, which calls into question the fundamental principles of our Republic in terms of land law, the right to asylum, the right of access to health”, a declared the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet, during this gathering which brought together around 200 people, including parliamentarians and undocumented workers, a few meters from the Palais Bourbon.

This bill “rolls out a red carpet for all the theses of the RN”, she lamented. “We must stop agitating the theses of the extreme right, we must return to Republican territory, otherwise (this text) opens a boulevard to the National Rally,” she said. The union leader also denounced the “hypocrisy” in terms of regularizations, the aspect of which is considered insufficient. “France could not function without undocumented workers in kitchens, cleaning, construction,” she listed, calling for “full rights” regularization beyond just professions with labor shortages. of work. Immigrant defense NGOs are against a text which “conflates foreigners and delinquents, foreigners and terrorists”, criticized Henry Masson, president of the La Cimade association.

At 4 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.

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”.

Faced with the concerns of RN and LR deputies, the former prime minister nevertheless considered that the regularization of undocumented workers in professions in shortage did not constitute a migratory “breathtaking”.

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.