Immigration law: the motion to reject would be “a denial of democracy”, according to Gérald Darmanin

2023-12-11 11:45:24

It is a day which could be decisive for the Minister of the Interior. This Monday, at 4 p.m., Gérald Darmanin – who is strongly committed to the text – will present the immigration bill to the National Assembly. But, even before the start of the debates, a rejection motion tabled by environmentalists will be examined.

“We have a relative majority. Mathematically, the united oppositions win, so mathematically the motion to reject is adopted this afternoon,” admitted the tenant of Place Beauvau on CNews/Europe 1 this Monday morning. “That’s logic. Now there is politics,” he clarified.

And, for him, the adoption of this rejection motion – which implies that the text will return to the Senate without being debated by the deputies or will be referred to a joint joint committee – would be “a denial of democracy”. “It would be unusual if we could not debate a subject that fascinates the French,” judged Gérald Darmanin. Especially since “the text was adopted by the Senate, which does not support the government. And yet, he agreed to debate,” he recalled.

The Minister of the Interior went even further, by making MPs responsible for a potential future tragedy, if it involved a person who could have been expelled in accordance with the bill. “If the oppositions really do not want to debate any subject, it is the parliamentarians who will have this responsibility,” he insisted. “I am not afraid of debate,” continued Gérald Darmanin, ensuring that his hand was “stretched, particularly towards the LRs”.

“MPs are free people”

Questioned on RTL this Monday morning, Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly, estimated that the adoption of the rejection motion would be “very paradoxical” while “everyone has an opinion on the bill immigration, as evidenced by the number of amendments” – 2,600. The lower house would “shoot itself in the foot” if the text could not be debated there, she insisted. “The debates must make it possible to create a compromise, as the senators did. There is a path, it is up to us to find it,” argued Yaël Braun-Pivet.

For her part, environmentalist MEP Marie Toussaint – whose party tabled the rejection motion – judged on Sud Radio that “no one wants this text, for diametrically opposed reasons”. She also believes that, since the question of immigration is discussed at European level, “the text under debate (in France) could be obsolete”.

“It is not the people who use 49.3 every week (…) who can come and give lessons to the deputies by saying: we must debate,” said RN deputy Sébastien Chenu on LCI this Monday morning. “The deputies are free people,” he reacted to the accusations of “denial of democracy” made by Gérald Darmanin in the event of a vote on the rejection motion.