15:33 – Aid to migrants: the Constitutional Council devotes the "principle of fraternity"

Fraternity was a motto, it became one of the great principles of French law: the Constitutional Council said Friday that disinterested aid to the "illegal stay" of foreigners can not be prosecuted in the name of this principle, which

"Like freedom and equality, which are the other two terms of the motto of our Republic, fraternity will have to be respected as a constitutional principle by the legislator and may be invoked before the courts, "reacted to AFP the President of the Council, Laurent Fabius.

This decision, which promises to resonate like a thunderclap in a European political context tense on the migration issue, meets a request from Cédric Herrou, a farmer who became the symbol of aid to migrants on the Franco-Italian border and who called for the abolition of the "crime of solidarity". His lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, immediately congratulated himself on a "huge victory."

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb also welcomed this decision, but congratulating himself that the Constitutional Council did not has not extended the existing exemptions "to irregular entry into French territory". The Constitutional Council plans to maintain the sanctions in this case.

This decision "validates the reform of the offense of solidarity" pbaded in the Assembly, have welcomed several leaders of the majority and left.

At the Opposite, on the right, deputies LR, regretting that the Constitutional Council "replaces the legislator", denounced a decision that "obviously weakens the fight against mbad immigration."

– "Freedom to help others "-

For the first time, the Constitutional Council consecrates the" principle of fraternity ", recalling that" the motto of the Republic is + Liberty, Equality, Fraternity + "and that the fundamental law refers to this" common ideal "

" It follows from the principle of fraternity the freedom to badist others, for humanitarian purposes, without regard to the regularity of their stay on the national territory ", according to the decision.

To allow the legislator to remedy the unconstitutionality found, the Council postponed to 1 December 2018 the date of repeal of the contested provisions.

The general principles of law were for the most part fixed after the Second World War and it is extremely rare that new ones are enunciated.

In front of the Constitutional Council, Cédric Herrou and another activist from the Roya Valley, both sentenced for illegal residence, had attacked two articles of the Code of Entry and Stay of Foreigners.

Article 622-1, which punishes aid for the entry, movement and illegal stay of five years' imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros, and Article 622-4, which states that this aid may not be prosecuted if it is the fault of the family or "any natural or legal person, where the act complained of has not given rise to any direct or indirect consideration".

The precise text secondly, that the authorized aid consists in particular of "providing legal advice or provision of catering, accommodation or medical care (…) or any other aid aimed at preserving dignity or physical integrity". [19659002] A text "too vague" for the defenders of activists, who allowed the sanctioning of humanitarian aid in the same way as organized crime smuggler sectors.

"By repressing any badistance to the circulation of foreigners in an irregular situation", the Constitutional Council considers that the legislator did not respect the balance between "principle of fraternity" and "safeguarding public order".

He therefore partially censors Article L 622-4, leaving the field of prosecution any humanitarian aid to the "stay" as the "circulation" of migrants. On the other hand, "help with irregular entry" remains sanctioned.

– Very tense political context –

On the conditions of immunity listed in the same article, the Council issues a "reservation of interpretation", that is to say, it specifies the meaning that the the text must be given: thus, immunity should apply to the situations listed (legal advice, medical care, etc.) but also "to any other act of aid brought for a humanitarian purpose".

decision comes in a very tense political context on the migratory issue.

Last Friday, after weeks of acid exchanges against the background of the rescue of wandering boats in the Mediterranean, the leaders of the European Union reached a compromise that proposes the creation of "landing platforms" of migrants outside the EU to dissuade crossings.

In France, voices were raised even in the majority to criticize the fact that the government did not propose welcome the Aquarius, a ship rejected by Italy and then sailing with 630 migrants in distress.

In Parliament, deputies and senators did not reach Wednesday to agree on the bill "asylum and immigration": end of June, the senators had hardened the text adopted in April by the National Assembly, which had made the "offense of solidarity" more flexible. A new writing of the text must therefore take into account the decision of the Constitutional Council.