The bumpy road of the immigration bill continues on Tuesday 19 December, with a bitter negotiation focused on housing subsidies, a new stumbling block between the right and President Emmanuel Macron's majority, who continue to hope for an agreement in the joint committee (CMP).

The body, composed of seven deputies and as many senators, resumed its work as scheduled around 10:30 a.m. In a sign of the difficulties in reaching a conclusion, the final vote scheduled for the afternoon was postponed to 19 p.m. in the Senate and 21:30 p.m. in the Assembly.

In the lower house, where the issue divides the majority, the outcome of the vote in the event of an agreement within this committee is very uncertain and poses the risk of a serious crisis for Macron.

Several dozen articles still remain to be examined by the CMP, starting with the one concerning personalized housing assistance (APL), which the right wants to make conditional on five years of residence for foreigners – two and a half years for those who work – compared to six months currently.

A hardening that Bruno Retailleau thought he had obtained from Elisabeth Borne, whom he asked to "respect her commitments". "The issue is crucial" and at this stage "the path has not been found" to reach a compromise, added the leader of the LR senators.

The leader of the LR senators Bruno Retailleau during debates on the immigration bill in the Senate, on November 14, 2023 in Paris © Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP/Archives

The Prime Minister, who wants to avoid the issue dividing her majority, was expected to attend the meeting of Renaissance MPs in the morning.

"We want a waiting period" for obtaining housing assistance, insisted the president of Les Républicains Eric Ciotti on BFMTV and RMC. He opened a door by indicating that his party had "no fixed line" on the length of this deadline, which "will be debated this morning".

According to several parliamentary sources, convergence is emerging on a period reduced to three months of residence for working foreigners. "Things will have to be unblocked," LR MP Annie Genevard told franceinfo, saying she was "hopeful" that the CMP, of which she is a member, "will be conclusive", even if "we have at least for the day, maybe even the evening".

"Navy Blue Lines"

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, was optimistic, considering on France 2 a vote "probably at the end of the day [or] in the early evening", but "not at any price, [nor] under any conditions".

Except that the Macronist majority doesn't see it that way. "We will not give in" on housing subsidies, and "there will be no agreement" if the right maintains its demands, warned the leader of the Renaissance deputies, Sylvain Maillard, on Europe 1 and CNews.

During the negotiations that preceded the CMP, "we never talked about the APL and we do not accept the principle that [this aid] is conditional on a national preference", he insisted, expressing indignation that "a Congolese nurse [and] a French nurse would not have the right to the same conditions".

Read alsoImmigration law: what are the possible scenarios for the joint committee?

The presidential camp has already approved several other measures demanded by the right, including multi-year immigration quotas defined in Parliament, the reinstatement of an illegal residence offence punishable by a fine and a restriction of access to reduced transport fares for undocumented migrants.

The government has also responded to the Republicans' ultimatums, with written pledges to reform state medical aid "in early 2024" and to "accelerate as much as possible" the opening of new detention centers with a view to deporting more irregular foreigners.

Socialist MP leader Boris Vallaud (C) makes a statement to the press upon his arrival at the National Assembly, on December 18, 2023 in Paris © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Concessions that prove that "the majority has given in on all the red lines and has gone beyond the navy blue lines", according to Boris Vallaud, the leader of the Socialist deputies, in an allusion to the ideas defended by the leader of the RN Marine Le Pen.

However, even if the CMP results in a text, the National Rally "will abstain or vote against", unless "the measures that aim to facilitate the regularization of illegal immigrants on French soil are withdrawn," announced its president Jordan Bardella on France Inter.

Highly unlikely, because the regularization of undocumented workers, which has long crystallized opposition, remains written in the text, in the hands of the prefects, as demanded by the right.

With AFP

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