The Constitutional Council on Friday validated most of the provisions of the controversial bill establishing the vaccine pass, including possible identity checks by cafeterias or restaurateurs, in the name of the objective of “health protection” against the Covid-19 epidemic.
No pass for political rallies
The Elders, who had been seized by the opposition, however censored the possibility for the organizers of political meetings to request a health pass from participants. The organizers will however be able to take “all useful health precautionary measures, such as limiting the number of participants, distributing masks or ventilating the rooms”, according to a press release. To justify this partial censorship, the Constitutional Council noted that the parliamentarians did not condition the pass in the meetings to the “health situation”. The measure was introduced via an LR amendment in committee in the Assembly on December 29, with the support of the majority.
The bill, definitively adopted on Sunday by Parliament, will be promulgated and “will allow the full deployment of the vaccine pass from this Monday, January 24 as announced by the Prime Minister” Thursday, welcomed Matignon. It will then be necessary to be able to justify for the over 16s a vaccination status to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport. A negative test will no longer suffice, except to access health facilities and services.
About sixty deputies from all sides led by the France insoumise group, as well as socialist senators, had seized the Constitutional Council by denouncing a device infringing fundamental freedoms. The Elders of rue Montpensier note that the provisions on the vaccination pass “cannot be regarded, given the nature of the places and the activities carried out there, as establishing an obligation to vaccinate”.
Identity verification
The measures concerning the pass “must be strictly proportionate to the health risks incurred” and “it is terminated without delay when they are no longer necessary”, they also note, the bill providing for a possible application until 31 July. Regarding identity checks by cafeterias, restaurateurs, in cinemas or theaters in case of doubt about the holder of a pass, the Council considers that this is not an administrative police check.
“The refusal of the person to produce” an official document containing his photo “can have no other consequence than the impossibility for him to access this place”, he supports. This identity verification was particularly criticized by the Socialist senators in their referral. But the Constitutional Council issues “a reservation of interpretation”: the verification can only be based “on criteria excluding any discrimination of any kind whatsoever between people”.