the government ready for “a compromise without distorting the text”

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he was “certain” that the government will reach “a compromise without distorting the text” of the immigration bill presented, this Wednesday, February 1, in the Council of Ministers, “in obviously listening to the opposition, and particularly the right-wing opposition”. “We will have the parliamentary debate, but we are certain that Olivier Dussopt (Minister of Labour) and I will reach a compromise without distorting the text, obviously listening to the opposition, and particularly the right-wing opposition”, declared Gérald Darmanin after the Council of Ministers.

The government seeks a compromise with the right

The text will be examined first in the Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition. While the government is already looking for a compromise with LR on the pension file, the new president of the Republicans (LR) Éric Ciotti has already warned that he will vote against the immigration text in the Assembly . And the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau again criticized on Wednesday a text which according to him “does not change the situation” because “it does not allow to regain control, control of immigration”.

“We are discussing with several members of Parliament, and of course the majority which is the pillar of our action. There is the (centrist) Liot group and there is the LR group since it is not for us to discuss with the RN on an immigration text”, explained Gérald Darmanin, this Wednesday, February 1, after recalling that the left-wing groups had “closed the door” to an approval of this law.

Gérald Darmanin is “open to discussion”

“We hear from the LRs of the Assembly that they are waiting to know what the LRs of the Senate are going to do. So we will have the opportunity to improve a certain number of provisions. The president (LR of the Committee on Laws of the Senate, François-Noël) Buffet is for example very attached to the idea that a refusal of asylum is equivalent to an order of deportation to the border. It is not in this text, we are open for example to this proposal “, developed the Minister of the Interior.

“There are proposals to restrict family reunification (…), I am open to this discussion”. “There are discussions which obviously evoke labor immigration. We have not put the quotas in the text” but “we are awaiting the proposals of the LR group”, listed the Minister of the Interior. “For the moment, we read them in the media, but we have not seen the beginning of a written legislative provision,” he said.

Measures to facilitate evictions

The text, also supported by the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, provides for measures to facilitate expulsions, especially of “delinquent” foreigners, a reform of the right to asylum and an integration component, in particular the regularization of undocumented workers in the “jobs in tension” (catering, building, etc.) where employers are struggling to hire.