On the highly sensitive issue of immigration, the dual objective of the Republicans is clear: to reaffirm the unity of the group and to distance itself from a hesitant presidential majority on the subject. It is therefore together that the three tenors of the right – the number 1 of the party Eric Ciotti, the leader of the deputies LR Olivier Marleix, and the boss of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau – lifted the veil this Sunday on their two proposals immigration law, praising in unison “a project of rupture, both audacious and serious”.
The first text is a proposed constitutional law (PPLC), which should make it possible to “amend the Constitution in order to restore our sovereignty in migration matters”, explains Eric Cioti in a cross interview granted to the Journal du Dimanche (JDD). The second is a bill (PPL) which must “implement the powerful measures” planned by the party, he explains.
“We will file the texts together this week. Then, we can put them on the agenda, in particular for the Senate, in the fall, for the ordinary text, ”says Bruno Retailleau.
Include imilation in the Constitution
In detail, the PPLC aims to modify several articles of the Constitution so as to “reaffirm the right of France to decide sovereignly who it wishes to welcome and who it wishes to refuse on national territory”. Article 1 would thus be modified to “affirm the rejection of communitarianism”. LR also proposes to include imilation in the Constitution by supplementing article 3 to proclaim that “no one can become French if he does not justify his imilation to the French community”.
Article 11 will be amended to “allow the holding of a referendum on migration policy”, when, today, “the referendum can only relate to the organization of public powers and economic, social reforms and environmental issues,” recalls Bruno Retailleau.
LR also intends to include in the Constitution “the possibility of derogating from the primacy of the treaties and European law […] when the fundamental interests of the nation are at stake”, considering that immigration falls into this box, explains the leader of the LR senators. On this last point, the right-wing party ures him: “This text is not anti-European”. “The subject is less the treaties than the interpretation made by the judges. When the judge exempts himself from the law, an organic law must allow intervention,” says Bruno Retailleau.
Censorship threat
The PPL proposed by LR must precisely, after modifying the Constitution, allow the application of several measures against “m immigration”, explain the leaders of the party. Among them, the vote, each year by Parliament, of a law fixing the number of foreigners admitted to France for each reason; the replacement of state medical aid (AME) by less generous “emergency” medical aid; the reinstatement of an “illegal residence offence” or even a tightening of the conditions for granting nationality under the law of the soil.
“We are radically changing our approach with these two texts. The French are waiting for an energetic takeover of immigration,” explains Olivier Marleix, who returns the ball to Elisabeth Borne: “The government tells us that it wants a text? Well, we offer him two! For us, it’s this or nothing.
The leader of the LR deputies warns that he will file a motion of censure against the government if the latter tries to p by 49-3 “a lax text”. “Chick! “says Eric Ciotti. ” Go for it. Seize this opportunity. Any other decision would be procrastination and the choice of impotence”, ures the latter.