Bruno Retailleau affirms that we will “touch” State Medical Aid and “wishes” for the abolition of land rights in Mayotte

LR Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau assured Sunday January 19 that the Bayrou government would “to touch” for State medical aid (AME), a system allowing foreign nationals without a regular residence permit in France to seek treatment.

“We will touch it“, affirmed the minister, taking a firm line on migration issues. “It is a subject of the PLFSS (Social Security financing bill)“, he added.

Towards an adjustment of the care basket

Bruno Retailleau requests that the conclusions of the Evin/Stefanini report, submitted at the end of 2023 before the dissolution, be taken up, which according to him had judged that the AME was a “encouragement of clandestinity“. In this document, former PS minister Claude Evin and prefect Patrick Stefanini, LR figure, notably advocated an adjustment of the basket of care accessible via the AME.

They also underlined the role of the system in preventing the deterioration of the health of illegal migrants, as well as the spread of diseases to the entire population. The right and the extreme right are calling for a reduction in the scope of care eligible for AME, or even its complete disappearance. The system is, however, defended by the left and part of the centrist bloc.

Also read: Covered care, cost, “immigration suction pump”… the truth and the falsehood about State Medical Aid

In December, as part of the review of the state budget, the Senate approved, with the support of the government, a reduction of 200 million euros in the budget allocated to the AME out of a total of 1, 3 billion, an increase of more than 9% compared to 2024.

State Medical Aid provides care for people in an irregular situation residing in France for more than three months, whose resources are low and do not qualify for coverage under the common law system.

Towards the abolition of land rights in Mayotte?

More broadly, on migration policy, Bruno Retailleau once again said “to wish“the abolition of land rights in Mayotte even if he agreed that as it stands, the political conditions were not met.

Same observation for a debate on land rights in mainland France. “There must be, not automaticity, but it must come from a voluntary act“, declared the minister who thus wants to return to the provisions of the law put in place by former RPR minister Charles Pasqua in 1993 before being abolished under the socialist government of Lionel Jospin.

The Pasqua law made obtaining French nationality, for a minor born in France to foreign parents with a residence permit, upon reaching the age of 18, subject to a prior declaration.