The vote on such a text does not imply any executive decision and only reflects the expression of a wish. However, this political act has not failed to provoke a reaction from the right and center opposition.
“The Constitutional Council, while demonstrating that several provisions of the “immigration” law were contrary to the fundamental rules of our Republic, nevertheless left in place a number of provisions that directly clash with our humanistic and universalist values,” deplored the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, in the motion submitted to the elected officials. The deputy national secretary of the Socialist Party added that “a few months before the European elections, a reinforced, supportive and humanistic common policy must be defended on this scale, in the face of populist and nationalist drifts.”
“I’m not convinced that this is the case with the proposed text,” responded Julien Bainvel, an opposition LR elected official. “What you are proposing is not a wish, it’s a leaflet.”
Mounir Belhamiti, a Macron supporter and municipal councilor and deputy from Nantes, who supported the text adopted by the government, pointed out another inconsistency. “Strange reversal of fields of competence, which sees your majority fleeing theirs when it comes to local issues, and trying to act as censors of the legislator.”
“The state’s coffers are empty, the department this year is not balancing its budget, yet it is responsible for solidarity. As for the city, it has tensions regarding social housing and an inability to accommodate all newcomers.
We have shantytowns sprouting on the periphery, but with that, we should open the tap? It’s irresponsible.
You won’t be able to continue to integrate them. With that, you’re paving the way for the far-right National Rally,” he protested.
“Regardless of the level of openness, one thing that follows is the necessary means for the integration of immigration. And it could very well do without it.”
On the side of the ecologists, “they will continue to defend the unconditional reception of immigrants,” reiterated Marie Vitoux, co-president of the Ecologist and Citizen elected officials. She also accused elected official Mounir Belhamiti of having voted for “a xenophobic text, called for by Jean-Marie Le Pen since the 1980s.
A disgrace for a parliamentarian from the left, and a historic political mistake.” The accused then clarified, amid laughter and a certain hubbub, that he had never “belonged to the family of ecologists,” nor been “a member of the EELV party”: “elected officials of the Republic must above all defend the general interest.
Even before the ideology or dogma of their political party. And I believe that makes a quite clear difference between us on this point,” concluded the elected official.