Immigration: the shy outstretched hand of Elisabeth Borne to LR

And here comes the immigration bill again. The page of pensions definitively turned after the failure of the censure motion against the government of Elisabeth Borne last Monday, the Prime Minister is heading back to this flagship bill that she hopes to see debated in the fall in Parliament. A week after the Annecy attack the context changed again with a hardening of speech of the right and the extreme right.

Elisabeth Borne has no choice: faced with the expectations of public opinion and political pressure, she has no choice but to move forward on the subject. “We are determined”, she repeats in an interview with “Figaro”. She promises a “clarified” text at the end of June, “stabilized” in July and debated in the fall, without specifying whether it will be the same bill presented in February to the Council of Ministers.

“The terms are discussed”

Nothing has yet been arbitrated but Matignon is leaning towards a new text. According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV, 71% of those questioned are in favor of the right of asylum, but 64% believe that the rules should be reviewed “even if it means no longer respecting current European and international rules”.

There remains the thorny question of the content of the future bill. At “Figaro”, Elisabeth Borne repeats being attached to the balance of the text, in particular with regard to residence permits for trades in tension, a proposal which crystallizes the opposition of the right. She tries an opening considering that “the modalities are discussed” but it risks coming up against the intransigence of Les Républicains deputies on the issue.

After spreading its divisions over the pension reform, Eric Ciotti’s party intends rebound on immigration , both to show its firmness and respond to public opinion and to try to display its unity. However, the government needs a majority of them to p the text without recourse to 49.3. “We have a balanced text but it will not suit the Republicans. I do not see the pageway, ”said a Renaissance deputy.

deep differences

Employers were out of the woods on the issue of shortage occupations by declaring themselves in favor of it, but they are being very cautious today. “The employers refuse to be exploited. He didn’t ask anything. We just want clear texts that complete the Valls circular in order to be able to hire more foreign workers without being exploited by those who reproach us for an immigrationist vision or those who call us slavers, ”supports the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. in an interview this Thursday at “La Tribune”.

For Elisabeth Borne, the question is also that of maintaining the cohesion of the majority , on a text which is already causing deep differences both within the government and among deputies. Sovereign issues, and in particular migration, have always divided the macronist galaxy since 2017. Nothing is certain.

Speech hardening

Last week, Edouard Philippe’s offensive on the theme of immigration did not go unnoticed. By declaring that Gérald Darmanin’s proposals were “necessary but not sufficient” and by speaking out for a revision of the Franco-Algerian agreement of 1968, the former Prime Minister has hardened his discourse on immigration.

He is not the only one. Last week, Renaissance MP Charles Sitzenstuhl, a former member of Bruno Le Maire’s cabinet, declared that we had to “stop being gazelle-like modesty” on immigration-related issues, while speaking out clearly on a restriction of state medical aid (AME). Positions closer to those of the Republicans than to the heart of the Renaissance deputies, where they created a certain stir. Elisabeth Borne and her Minister of the Interior must therefore play on two fronts.