“I want an effective and fair law, in a single text that maintains this balance,” said the head of state, when questioned on the subject of immigration in the columns of Le Parisien. Emmanuel Macron had however announced, on March 22, that he wanted to split his project into “several texts” in order to keep only the most consensual aspects, for lack of an absolute majority in the Assembly. But the maneuver had aroused hostility and the Minister of the Interior himself pleaded last week for “a strong bill”: “I want it to be the text that I proposed” and not to new texts, he had declared.
The initial bill carried by Gérald Darmanin and the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt has two main components, each irritating some of the opposition: on the one hand, measures to facilitate and accelerate the expulsions of foreigners who constitute a threat to public order audience ; on the other, regularization measures for certain undocumented workers in “tension” sectors.
“The at the same time is not an ambiguity. When you are on this ridge path, you are attacked in stereo, those who say it is too soft and those who claim it is awful”, quipped Mr. Macron on Sunday, lamenting an “often caricatural” debate around the immigration. “We must be more demanding in terms of integration, defend French secularism,” he pleaded. “On the immigration side, our procedures are far too long. Deadlines explode, people end up finding a job, settling down and being protected by other rules. So it doesn’t work anymore, ”said Emmanuel Macron.
The head of state, however, remained evasive on the method that will be used by the executive to get this text passed, while Elisabeth Borne has undertaken to no longer use article 49.3, excluding budgetary texts. “The Prime Minister is looking with the different parties, I can’t tell you what the path will be,” said the head of state. “You have to build a political majority, it depends on what the relative majority on the one hand, the constructive oppositions on the other, are ready to join,” he evaded.
During his televised address last Monday, the President of the Republic revived the subject and promised to strengthen “the control of illegal immigration, while better integrating those who join our country”. And on RTL on Tuesday, Olivier Dussopt also set the goal of resuming the debate “before the summer”.
