Seized at the beginning of the week by around sixty deputies, the Constitutional Council validated this Friday, January 21 almost all the provisions of the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass, adopted last Sunday by Parliament.
The Constitutional Council has indeed validated most of the provisions of this controversial bill, including possible identity checks by cafeterias or restaurateurs, in the name of the objective of “health protection” in the face of the epidemic of Covid-19.
The Elders, who thus had to respond to the disgruntled deputies, however censured the possibility for the organizers of political meetings to request a health pass from the participants. The organizers will however be able to take “all useful health precautionary measures, such as limiting the number of participants, the distribution of masks or the ventilation of the rooms”, according to a press release.
An appeal brought mainly by deputies from La France insoumise, firmly opposed to the text, but also by elected representatives from the group of the Democratic and Republican Left, Liberties and Territories, the UDI, the socialist group and even an elected representative from the Republicans had yet been launched.
They denounce a form of “disguised vaccination obligation”, which would infringe “personal freedom, the right to respect for private life, the freedom to come and go, the right to collective expression of ideas and opinions , and the right to lead a family life”, although everyone recognizes the importance of vaccination in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Towards new debates in parliament?
The Elders of the rue de Montpensier, responsible for verifying that the bill is in accordance with the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, will therefore have to rule on a certain number of points. The appeal filed by the deputies aims in particular at the extension of the vaccination pass to minors aged 16 and 17, the methods of collecting health data and the conditions for monitoring periods of isolation and quarantine by the police. .
Another appeal was also filed by socialist senators, who said they were not opposed to the principle of the bill, but believe that it must be “scrupulously” framed. They also criticize the “right to repent” of people who have not presented a vaccination pass or who have presented a fake one, if they undertake to be vaccinated, fearing a “break in equality” with other citizens.
The Constitutional Council therefore has the power to censure certain provisions of the text, if it considers that they are unconstitutional. In this case, the debates on the text could be relaunched in Parliament.