The French National Assembly approves the controversial immigration reform

2023-12-20 00:11:04

The Minister of Health presents his resignation after the approval of the immigration law

MADRID, 20 (EUROPA PRESS)

The French National Assembly approved this Tuesday the controversial immigration reform, which offers concessions to the right to control the arrival of migrants to the European country, after the setback suffered last week by the Government of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Lower House has given the ‘green light’ to the text with the favorable votes of 349 deputies, while 186 have voted against. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has celebrated that the initiative has been approved with a “solid majority”, which has included the support of the far-right National Rally.

The organization had previously rejected – by 284 votes against and 155 votes in favor – a motion presented by the left-wing party La Francia Insumisa to overthrow the immigration reform, a text that has raised blisters in the most progressive sector of Renacimiento, President Macron’s party.

The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, has considered that the reform is a “necessary and useful text, expected by the French”, an “effective text and consistent with republican values.” During the debate, the Head of Government denounced the “rude maneuvers” of the National Rally, party of the far-right Marine le Pen. “They plant the flag on our text even though they did not vote on it in the Senate,” she said.

Now, Borne has asserted that “the majority was united” and that the “maneuver” of the National Group “has failed”: “Tonight only the general interest has won,” he has settled, despite the fact that one in four Macronist deputies has voted against the text.

The support of Le Pen’s far-right party for the draft has caused even Macron to speak out, ensuring that he himself would overturn the initiative if it only had the favorable votes of said party.

For his part, the leader of La Francia Insumisa (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has called the approval a “disgusting victory”, after which he has reported that his party has proposed to the “parliamentary left to unite to confront the axis Macron-Le Pen”. “This situation cannot remain without a reaction in accordance with the importance of the moment,” reads a statement from the training coordinator, Manuel Bompard, shared by Mélenchon.

The Minister of Health, Auréliem Rousseau, has presented his letter of resignation to the Executive, due to his differences with the initiative, according to what the French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ has learned. Rousseau strongly opposed the toughening of the bill and before the vote threatened his resignation along with other ministers, such as Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, and Housing, Patrice Vergriete, respectively.

One of the main sources of tension has been social aid, since initially the right called for a clear hardening of current policies. These types of benefits, for example those intended for families or housing issues, will be conditional on foreigners having been in France for at least five years, instead of six months as until now. If you have a job, the terms are reduced to between three and 30 months, depending on the subsidy.

In addition, the draft includes measures for the regularization of immigrants who can work in sectors with a shortage of labor – subject to the discretion of the prefects -, the tightening of the requirements for family reunification, the recovery of the crime of stay illegal, the prohibition of the entry of minors into administrative detention centers or the withdrawal of nationality for those who commit crimes against the security forces.

The draft law was previously approved in the Senate with 214 votes in favor and 114 against after a mixed parliamentary commission, made up of seven deputies and seven senators, agreed on a consensus text. The debate occurs after the Government failed last week in its attempt to approve the measure, which led the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to present his resignation, although Macron rejected his departure from the Executive.