After showing internal divisions on pension reform, Les Républicains (LR) want to regain control of one of their markers: immigration. The right-wing party announces that it will table “this week” two bills, while the executive goes from one reversal to another on its intentions in the matter.
The three presidents – Eric Ciotti, of the LR party, Olivier Marleix, of the LR parliamentary group in the National Assembly, and Bruno Retailleau, of the LR group in the Senate – unveiled, in Le Journal du dimanche (JDD) of May 21, two offensive bills to “completely change the framework of migration policy”, according to the number one of the movement.
“The French tell us in all the polls: there are too many immigrants. We have to regain control,” says Bruno Retailleau. Touting “a project of rupture, both daring and serious”, Eric Ciotti pleads in unison “to put a stop to mass immigration”, in this joint interview which shows, according to them, that they have “always been united on these matters”.
“The French must be able to choose who they welcome, who they do not wish to welcome, and who no longer has a place in our territory”, further Eric Ciotti. “We want to put an end to an uncontrolled situation,” he pleads.
“The power is no longer in the hands of Parliament”
The first proposal is of a constitutional nature: it aims to “allow the holding of a referendum on migration policy”, when today “the referendum can only relate to the organization of public powers and economic reforms , social and environmental,” recalls Bruno Retailleau.
With this proposal, “the French will be able to vote on any bill or draft organic law whatever the subject, including immigration”, he continues, because “power is no longer in the hands of Parliament, but between those of the Supreme Courts: Constitutional Council, European Court of Human Rights…”
In this same text, LR intends to include in the Constitution “the possibility of derogating from the primacy of the treaties and of European law (…) when “the fundamental interests of the nation” are at stake”, considering that immigration enters into this box, according to Bruno Retailleau. And LR also intends to “elevate the principle of assimilation to constitutional rank”.
Restricted jus soli
The second bill “lays down four principles”, according to Bruno Retailleau, one of which concerns “suction pumps” such as social and medical aid, which would therefore be issued more severely.
It is also provided, in these principles, to facilitate expulsions by reinstating in particular the offense of illegal residence and the double penalty, which consists in convicting and then expelling a foreigner who has committed an offense or a crime.
“France is not an Eldorado, according to Eric Ciotti. Those who arrived illegally should know that they will not be welcomed and will have no rights. Today, we send the opposite message. »
The Republicans also intend to restrict the conditions for obtaining nationality under jus soli, for example by removing this right when the foreign parents are in an irregular situation at the time of the birth of the child.
The three LR representatives believe they must put pressure on the executive because they consider that “the government is procrastinating”. The French are “expecting real reform”, says Olivier Marleix. “This is why I will table a motion of censure [in the National Assembly] if the government tries to pass through 49.3 a lax text” on the subject of immigration, he warns.
