France: immigration law adopted by the Senate
After a week of sometimes virulent debates, the immigration law was finally widely adopted on Wednesday afternoon, November 14, by senators. However, the text has been profoundly toughened by the right, which has a majority in the upper house, and could be reworked when it is examined by the National Assembly.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin (C) as the President of the French Senate announces the result of the vote on the immigration bill in the French Senate, in Paris, November 14, 2023. AFP - GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT
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This is what the presidential camp wants. His boss in the Senate, François Patriat, even described the text adopted this afternoon as "retrograde", reactionary, and pleaded for a rebalancing work on the part of the deputies. But he assumes that his group voted in favour of the law, in the name of the government's interest in succeeding in passing this text, which is considered important.
This is not the only paradox of this afternoon: the National Rally, for example, voted against, despite several provisions added to the text, such as the abolition of state medical aid for people staying illegally, a long-standing demand of the far right.
The left has hardly weighed in the debates during the last week and this was felt during the vote: 210 votes in favor and 115 against. But she has set an appointment with the Assembly where she is expected to fight the question of regularisation, the right of the soil or the universality of social assistance.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin will therefore have to manoeuvre finely to avoid a government force. "Good luck to him," said the leader of the centrist senators, Hervé Marseille, ironically as he left the chamber.
Read alsoImmigration law: the Senate tightens the government's "regularization" component
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