2023-11-07 22:20:40
White smoke in the Senate. The right and the center, which make up the senatorial majority, found a “deal” on the famous article 3 of the Immigration bill, which provided for the regularization of undocumented immigrants in professions in shortage. A red line for the right, which refused to vote for the text if this article appeared as is. The centrists were in favor…
A compromise solution was adopted this Tuesday, November 7 afternoon in complete confidentiality in the Senate library between the boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, the president (LR) of the Laws committee, François-Noël Buffet, as well as the leader of the centrists, Hervé Marseille. In contact with them from afar, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin was kept informed of the discussions and expressed his satisfaction.
The foundations of the agreement, which should be presented this Wednesday morning to the Senate Law Committee by the centrist and LR rapporteurs, were laid on Monday evening during a dinner with the same and the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher. In detail, article 3 formally disappears from the bill. A symbolic victory for the right which had made it a totem.
It will be replaced by an additional article which will refer to a new circular which will allow prefects to regularize, according to more restrictive criteria than those of the current Valls circular. Among the new requirements: the compatibility of the title applicant with the “values of the Republic”, mastery of French but also the fact that he can demonstrate twelve months of effective work over the last two years.
Concession from the senatorial right: it is no longer opposed to irregular workers being able to submit a request for regularization to the prefects on their own initiative. Which was the spirit of Article 3, as drafted by the government.
“Retailleau had his arm twisted by Larcher”
“We preferred article 3, but of course we are going to be very favorable to this compromise,” says a pillar of the executive. “On a very tough text, we will still keep a system for the regularization of workers. So it’s pretty good. It is a compromise of good intelligence between Marseille, Retailleau and Darmanin,” adds a highly placed government source. Furthermore, article 4, another red line for the right – it planned to facilitate the possibility of working for certain asylum seekers – also falls.
Nothing should therefore stand in the way of the text being adopted by the Upper House. “This agreement should allow the Senate to vote on its own text, which profoundly modifies the version presented by the government”, welcomed Bruno Retailleau in a press release, referring to “a real takeover of our migration policy” .
“Retailleau had his arm twisted by Larcher, who is afraid of seeing his majority destabilized, and thus losing his legitimacy,” squeaks an LR strategist. Because this perspective puts new pressure on the right in the National Assembly… For the moment, the president of LR Éric Ciotti and the boss of deputies Olivier Marleix are defending a much tougher position vis-à-vis the bill.
The boss of deputies Olivier Marleix recalls his opposition to the text
During the LR group meeting at the National Assembly on Tuesday morning, Éric Ciotti regretted that the Senate did not make the adoption of a constitutional bill a prerequisite for any agreement with the government. The head of the deputies Olivier Marleix recalled his opposition to the text: “I do not want to be responsible for the failure of this Immigration law in two years. »
Last week, he had already sent a document to all deputies in which he explained, article by article, why the bill “is not a right-wing text but a left-wing text”.
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