Advocates for extending the detention of foreigners and limiting the granting of visas to countries that do not accept deportations
Oct. 1 () –
French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has proposed changes in immigration policy in his first speech this Tuesday before the National Assembly, including extending the detention status of migrants in an irregular situation to accelerate expulsion orders.
“It is urgent to get migration out of the ‘ideological impasse’ in which everyone has put it,” he stressed, adding that this challenge must be treated “with seriousness and humanity” instead of being “instrumentalized” by “controversies.” .
Barnier has assured the Assembly that France “does not have satisfactory control” of its immigration policy since, despite the more than 100,000 requests for expulsion registered each year, there are “tens of thousands of irregular immigrants” who remain “inappropriately.” “on French soil, according to ‘Le Parisien’.
For this reason, the Prime Minister has reported that the Government will work to achieve more efficient processing of asylum applications and will facilitate an “exceptional extension” of the detention of migrants in an irregular situation to accelerate expulsion orders.
The conservative party The Republicans has, in fact, presented a bill to increase the maximum period of detention of migrants to 135 days instead of the 90 currently set, according to several French media.
Barnier has also assured that they will restrict visas for those countries that are reluctant to welcome their expelled nationals. His words come amid the controversial death of a young woman on the outskirts of Paris. According to investigations, the main suspect would be a Moroccan citizen detained in Switzerland who was subject to an expulsion order.
After his speech, the extreme right criticized him for not proposing concrete measures on immigration. The leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, has asked that work be done on a law that includes the provisions that were censored by the Constitutional Council last December.
PENSION REFORM
Barnier has also proposed dialogue with different interlocutors to carry out “reasonable adjustments” to the controversial pension reform enacted by the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, which led thousands of people to the streets to protest.
“Some limits of the law approved on April 15, 2023 can be corrected,” the prime minister stated, also urging dialogue on another of the measures promoted by Macron that was paralyzed due to the dissolution of the Assembly, the law on assisted death.
Barnier has set several ‘red lines’ and has promised that there will be no tolerance towards racism and anti-Semitism, as well as violence against women. In the same way, he has been categorical that the right to abortion, equal marriage and assisted reproduction will not be questioned.
During Barnier’s speech, the deputies of La Francia Insumisa (LFI) protested by raising their voter cards in the chamber, as a symbol of their complaints towards an election that, as they understand, has not respected the vote of the French.
Barnier has not requested a vote of confidence before the National Assembly in the framework of his first speech as prime minister, since the French Constitution does not specify that it is mandatory, although it is an established tradition in France. The opposition parties of the French left have announced their intention to present a motion of censure against the Government following criticism of its election after the victory of the New Popular Front in the last legislative elections.
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