LR MPs call for a shared initiative referendum on immigration

2023-05-07 01:11:57

Paris, France March 16, 2023 – New reading, at the National Assembly, of the bill for the amending social security financing bill for 2023 during which the Prime Minister will engage the responsibility of the government by resorting to Article 49 paragraph 3. MP LR , Aurelien Pradie, responds to journalists in the room of the Four Columns. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “THE WORLD”

The deputies Les Républicains (LR) Aurélien Pradié and Pierre-Henri Dumont estimate in a gallery at the Sunday newspaper (JDD) that it is necessary to put an end to the family immigration suffered to pass to a chosen and overqualified work immigration, proposing for that a referendum of shared initiative (RIP).

Judging that “migratory chaos is gradually taking hold of the daily lives of our fellow citizens”the two elected officials consider that the postponement of the immigration bill, postponed until the fall by the executive, “constitutes a major political resignation”. They feel that “the quota policy is not up to the challenge of migration” and that it is now necessary “going from an under-qualified forced family immigration to an over-qualified chosen work immigration”.

For this they hope to deposit, “with many of (their) fellow Members, (…) in the coming weeks, a referendum of shared initiative”. The Constitution makes it possible to organize such a referendum on the initiative of at least 185 parliamentarians, supported by a tenth of the voters (4.87 million). The use of a RIP has so far never succeeded. The last two requests, filed by the left on pensions, were rejected by the Constitutional Council.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Pension reform: after a new rejection by the Constitutional Council, the very procedure of the referendum of shared initiative called into question

double penalty

Aurélien Pradié and Pierre-Henri Dumont wish to focus their proposal on “the improvement of the return rates of illegal immigrants by automatically freezing the issuance of visas, residence permits, money transfers and public development aid for any country that does not grant at least 50% of the consular laissez-passer necessary to deportation”.

They will also propose to condition “at five years of legal presence on the territory access to non-contributory benefits”. Finally, they are asking for the reinstatement of the double penalty which allows the expulsion from French territory of a foreigner convicted of a criminal offense once his sentence has been served.

At the end of April, Elisabeth Borne, who does not have a majority in the Assembly, reached out to the Republicans on immigration by calling for a ” compromise “. She had also ruled out the possibility of a referendum requested by the right.

Read also: Postponement of the immigration law: questioned by Elisabeth Borne, the Republicans counter-attack

The World with AFP