The former socialist Prime Minister believes that if the 2012 circular, which bears his name, is replaced, its “humane and realistic” spirit must nevertheless remain.
A call for firmness. Invited on Wednesday October 16 on BFMTV and RMC, former Prime Minister Manuel Valls returned to the comments of the current Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, who said he wanted to return to the Valls circular of 2012.
This allows prefects to exceptionally regularize people for reasons of “private and family life” (according to several criteria: children in school and presence in France for several years) or for work (in particular by justifying a presence on the territory for several years and a certain number of salary slips).
“I imagine that he is seeking to respond to a strong expectation of the French. We need a form of break with the immigration policies that have been pursued for several decades,” replied Manuel Valls.
“Human and realistic principles”
However, the former Prime Minister also assured: “on the circular itself, the principles must in one way or another be respected and applied even if “we can always change this or that point.”
“The circular aimed to resolve the insoluble problems of non-deportable and regularizable people, key workers in catering, cleaning, parents of children who have been on social security for three years,” he further explains.
And Manuel Valls added: “these principles which are human and realistic must be managed with great firmness. We do not need new immigration or with quotas by sector.
This text made it possible in 2023 to exceptionally regularize 34,700 undocumented immigrants for economic reasons (people working for several years in France) or family reasons (children who have been in school for several years, spouse).
In general, the former Prime Minister assures him, “we must both strengthen our national borders and, above all, the borders of the European Union.”
