Gérald Darmanin must bring the immigration bill to Parliament. The task promises to be delicate due to an article paving the way for the creation of a residence permit for professions in shortage. The right is firmly opposed to it.
New hot issue to come for the government. An immigration law must be presented to Parliament in November by Gérald Darmanin. The Minister of the Interior was tasked by Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne with carrying out this reform before the end of the parliamentary calendar.
This text was voted on in the Senate in March, but demonstrations against pension reform forced the executive to backpedal. The text was toughened by the majority right in the upper house of Parliament, with “important modifications that we need to discuss” according to Gérald Darmanin with France Info.
Great uncertainty hangs over this reform. The government is trying to be open to possible compromises with the Les Républicains party to avoid using law 49.3 again, given the government’s lack of an absolute majority. However, part of the Renaissance camp does not want to see the initial text modified by the right.
Tense negotiations with the Republicans
The leader of the LR group in the National Assembly, Olivier Marleix, has already threatened the government with a possible motion of censure in the event of major disagreement on this text: “I have very clearly said and repeated for a year to Madame “We would definitely table a motion of censure on a text that is lax in this area,” he said in an interview with Figaro.
LR is particularly opposed to the regularization of undocumented workers in “stretched” professions. This is clause 3 of the bill. The government is proposing the creation of a residence permit for “jobs in shortage” valid for one year. It would concern foreigners working illegally in sectors lacking labor such as catering, construction or even the hotel industry. If the bill is adopted, the executive wishes to set up this system on an experimental basis until December 31, 2026.
However, the bill could strengthen the prerequisites required of undocumented immigrants who wish to settle in France. A certain mastery of the French language is notably proposed and the government would like to facilitate expulsions for foreigners “not respecting the values of the Republic”, according to Gérald Darmanin.
Tensions within Renaissance?
A transpartisan op-ed was published in Release by Renaissance elected officials, including the president of the law commission Sacha Houlié, and members of the Nupes (New Ecological and Social Popular Union) such as Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the Communist Party, Boris Vallaud, president of the socialist deputies, or even ecologist Julien Bayou. This group of 35 parliamentarians wishes to put pressure on to maintain article 3 of the immigration bill.
If the negotiations with LR have attracted media attention, the presidential camp has been negotiating with the left since March on this subject. The vote of left-wing elected officials could also allow the bill to be adopted in the National Assembly without using 49.3, the legislative tool which allows the passage of a text in Parliament without voting on it.