Towards an agreement between the right and the majority on the “immigration” bill? The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said she was “confident”, Sunday December 17, about such an outcome, on the eve of the meeting of a joint joint commission (CMP) which must decide the fate of text. The latter could not be examined in public session last week, due to the vote on a motion to reject it by the opposition groups.
“I am confident because (…) the discussions are continuing (…) Today, there is a desire for agreement (…) on the part of the government, on the part of the presidential majority and on the part of part of our opposition,” declared Ms. Braun-Pivet (Renaissance) on BFM-TV.
Without wanting to anticipate the result of the CMP which will bring together senators and deputies on Monday at 5 p.m., Ms. Braun-Pivet agreed that a “general agreement” would “probably” be found before then. Within the government, the Minister of Solidarity Aurore Bergé maintained on Sunday on France 3 that an agreement was “possible and desirable”.
“Compromise” without “compromising on values”
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who began discussions with leaders of the Les Républicains (LR) party on Wednesday, is due to receive them again on Sunday evening.
The text, which the Senate with a right-wing majority has considerably toughened compared to the government’s initial version, serves as a basis for discussions. “It is therefore this text and this alone that we want to vote for,” reaffirmed LR boss Éric Ciotti.
Asked about the concessions that the majority is ready to make towards the right-wing party, Yaël Braun-Pivet said she was “a supporter of compromise”, without “compromising on (her) values”.
She admitted that one point was particularly debated, that of social benefits paid to foreigners in a legal situation. The Senate text plans to require foreigners to have to prove five years of residence to be able to benefit from allowances such as personalized housing assistance (APL) or family allowances, compared to six months currently. A possible compromise would be to reduce this duration to three years.
On this subject, Ms. Braun-Pivet recalled that the majority was attached to a “certain balance” and “social justice”. “It’s under discussion,” she said. The subject of access to benefits “is on the table,” Ms. Bergé conceded.
The President of the National Assembly also affirmed to be open to the end of the automaticity of the right of soil, and to the fact that young people born in France of foreign parents express their desire to acquire French nationality to obtain it .
Vallaud calls the left wing of the majority “to reason”
“We are in a complicated political moment”, with “a National Assembly without an absolute majority”, “it is the choice of the French and therefore our role as political leaders is to work with this Assembly to try to find a path to be able to act,” explained Ms. Braun-Pivet.
On the left, the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud called in La Tribune on Sunday “the humanists of the macronie to reason and coherence” as well as to “refuse the agreement written behind the very back of the CMP in contempt for the separation of powers, in the Prime Minister’s office under the dictation of the right”.
On LCI, the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella said he was opposed to a text “which will allow the regularization of illegal workers”, although there are “on the surface some measures which accelerate administrative procedures” of expulsions .