Are we heading towards a revolt by local elected officials against the “immigration” law? The departments of Lot and Seine-Saint-Denis announced, Wednesday December 20, that they would refuse to apply “the national preference” established according to them by the “immigration” law for the allocation of the personalized allowance of autonomy (APA).
The text provides that this benefit will only be paid to foreigners in a legal situation after a period of five years of presence in the territory for those who do not work and thirty months for those who have a job.
“The Lot department, faithful to its values of solidarity, refuses and will refuse to apply the principle of national preference for our elders,” said the president of the departmental council, Serge Rigal (various left), in a press release. To circumvent this measure, he proposes to “create a new universal autonomy allowance which will give exactly the same rights to Lotois who would be excluded by this law”.
According to the presidency of the department, article 19 of the law passed definitively on Tuesday “establishes the principle of national preference” for the APA. “It is universal aid, whether you are poor or rich, only conditioned on the fact of living regularly in our territory and having a medically proven dependence,” specifies the press release.
“The adoption of this new law establishes a difference between French Lotois or non-EU foreigners [and] the latter will no longer be able to access this aid unless they can prove two and a half years of contributions or five years of residence” , deplored the presidency of Lot, which therefore refuses to make such a distinction.
A “shame for our country”
Questioned by Agence France-Presse, Mr. Rigal described the “immigration” law as “a shame for our country”. “I am ashamed and I am a little disgusted to see that our deputies are capable of such things in today's society where we need to stick together,” he declared, adding that he had done shares his decision with other presidents of departmental executives, without knowing “at this time” whether some would follow his initiative.
The president of Seine-Saint-Denis quickly followed suit. “I will do everything possible to ensure that the department is a republican shield in the face of national preference,” said Stéphane Troussel (Socialist Party) in a message posted on 'personalized autonomy allowance for foreigners in a legal situation'.
