The third hedge was too high. After adoption in the Senate and then by the Laws Committee of the National Assembly, Gérald Darmanin’s immigration bill stumbled heavily at the most difficult stage: that of the Hemicycle. The debates will not even take place, since the adoption of a prior rejection motion by the coalition oppositions on Monday immediately ended the discussions. An unprecedented failure for the Macron camp in Parliament since the re-election of the head of state.
Stunned after leaving the Hemicycle, the defeated deputies met urgently in the Colbert room of the Palais Bourbon to discuss the future. What to do?, they asked themselves, in the presence of the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Franck Riester, and the Secretary of State for the City, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache.
The scenario of a pure and simple withdrawal of the bill was quickly ruled out. “This text is necessary and expected by the French,” the leaders of the three groups of the parliamentary majority wrote Monday evening, adding: “the legislative process must continue as quickly as possible.”
But in what form? Two options present themselves in this sense. Or a second passage in the Senate. Or the attempt to obtain an agreement in a joint committee (CMP), made up of seven deputies and seven senators. Commissioned by Emmanuel Macron, Élisabeth Borne brought together the ministers concerned and the majority leaders on Monday evening to decide on a strategy. “We will see what we decide,” declared Gérald Darmanin on TF1’s “8 p.m.,” indicating that Emmanuel Macron asked him to “propose” on Tuesday “a sequel to this text.”
During the meetings convened Monday evening, many figures from the Macronist coalition expressed their preference for holding a joint committee, with the hope of a more rapid adoption of the text. “We must not let the text drag on for months in 2024, while the European elections are looming,” said a leader of the majority group. Among the supporters of this method are the general rapporteur of the text, Florent Boudié, and the boss of the Horizons deputies, Laurent Marcangeli.
This hypothesis – “the most probable”, according to a majority executive – would consist of getting parliamentarians to work on a new version of the bill, likely to bring the Assembly and the Senate to agreement. The starting point would be the hardened copy adopted by the Upper House… and a blank page, since no measure was adopted in the Assembly Chamber.
This option would in fact give pride of place to the Republicans (LR) and their allies, who have a majority in the joint committee, which would give them the possibility of amending the text as they wish. With the possible help of the National Rally (RN), which would have the possibility of pushing some of its measures. “If it’s to have a tougher text…”, worries a skeptical executive advisor. To avoid letting the right distort the text, pointed out Sacha Houlié, representative of the left wing of the majority, an appeal 49.3 will be essential.
Holding a minority line, the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said she was in favor of the other plan envisaged: a return of the text to the Senate, in order to let the debates continue. A second reading would then take place in the Upper House on the bill as it was voted on in this Chamber, since the text voted on in the Assembly’s Law Committee has just been swept aside.
Senators could then discuss a reform that they have already largely amended, before voting on it and returning it to the National Assembly. “The same causes will produce the same effects,” warned MP (Renaissance) Marie Guévenoux to her colleagues on Monday. I don’t really see what effect a second reading would have on the text. We must go to the joint committee without delay.”
While they were thinking about the strategy to adopt, Emmanuel Macron’s troops also tried to rewind the film of the day. In their ranks, mobilization was not enough to avoid failure. Neither does the exceptional participation in the vote of Yaël Braun-Pivet. Nine Macronist deputies out of 251 failed to vote (five Renaissance elected officials, three MoDem and one Horizons) against the motion for prior rejection – one of whom, Monique Iborra, was with the Head of State traveling to Toulouse.
This heavy defeat is also a snub for the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. Which has however increased in recent days so that its text, presented as “effective”, is not rejected after more than a year of talks and postponements. “It’s a cataclysm,” alarms a member of Renaissance, while another fears a “government crisis.” “Symbolically, it’s crazy,” worries an advisor to the executive. Everyone knows: a period of great uncertainty is beginning for the government and its relative majority.
