It is an initiative that divides the Renaissance group in the National Assembly. The bill on the right to vote for non-EU foreigners in municipal elections, tabled by Renaissance MP Sacha Houlié, is “not a good surprise” and “turbulates the system for nothing”, estimated Wednesday morning his colleague from Renaissance Sylvain Maillard.
“I will not hide from you that it was not necessarily a good surprise”, reacted on franceinfo Sylvain Maillard, vice-president of the presidential group at the National Assembly. “It’s messing up the system for nothing, to be completely honest. We must not have political objects that have not been discussed between us, ”developed the deputy from Paris. “That does not mean that each of us cannot have a political position. (…) I can only recognize the convictions of Sacha Houlié, but on that, obviously, it makes the system turbulent and it sends back an image which is not positive, ”he continued.
Sacha Houlié, chairman of the Assembly’s Law Commission and member of the left wing of the presidential movement, tabled a constitutional bill aimed at granting the right to vote to non-EU foreigners in municipal elections, an old demand of the left which did not succeed either under François Mitterrand, nor under François Hollande.
A text supported by the left but not by Beauvau
Sacha Houlié filed this text “without request for co-signature, it is really on a personal basis”, underlined Mr. Maillard. “It is important that we have a debate – we are going to have it at the start of the school year on immigration, Gérald Darmanin wanted it – but that we, internally, can clarify our position in relation to different subjects” , insisted Sylvain Maillard. “We will all talk about it together. There are no taboos in our majority, and it is a subject on which we can discuss,” he said.
The Minister of the Interior is, according to his entourage, “firmly opposed” to this proposal, which arouses opposition from the right and the far right but is on the other hand supported by the left.