The deputies began Monday, in a stormy atmosphere, the examination of the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass.
Faced with the “tidal wave” of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the deputies began Monday, in a stormy atmosphere, the examination of the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccine pass, a text “in cold blood and responsibility “praised by Olivier Véran in the face of hostility from several political groups.
The text transforms the health pass into a vaccine pass to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport, recalled the Minister of Health at the start of the debates at first reading.
By Tuesday, the French will be “53 million to have received a first injection,” said Olivier Véran, for whom this shows that “French society is not divided”. This 12th anticovid text examined since the start of the epidemic is the subject of more than 650 amendments, which should be discussed until the end of the night. It will then go to committee in the Senate on Wednesday, then in session on Thursday, with a view to final adoption by Parliament by the weekend, for entry into force from January 15.
The government wants to further increase the pressure on the nearly five million French people aged 12 and over who have not been vaccinated. A negative test will no longer suffice, except for access to health establishments and services.
To have a complete vaccination schedule, it will be necessary, from February 15, to carry out its booster dose four months – and no longer up to seven months – after its second dose, knowing that an infection is always equivalent to an injection. .
“We do not have the choice”
Despite a few rare dissonant voices, the majority united.
Faced with the explosion of contaminations, “we have no choice”, explained the MoDem Laurence Vichnievsky, whose group wishes to extend the exemption allowing the sale of self-tests in supermarkets. In the opposition, the PS group says it votes “on principle” for the vaccine pass, like the majority of LR deputies.
“The temptation is great to transform the vote into a referendum on the management of the health crisis”, however warned Ian Boucard but LR asserts his sense of responsibility. LR parliamentarians will however demand a time limit for the vaccination pass via an amendment tabled in the Senate.
Some LR deputies, at least thirty out of the 103 in the group, have however tabled amendments to delete the key article 1 of the bill, suggesting votes against, or abstentions, on the whole of the text. .
The deletion amendments of all sides, examined in the early evening, were largely rejected by a hemicycle with well-stocked benches.
A “totalitarian society”
The rebels, through the voice of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, defended in vain a motion of prior rejection against the vaccine pass, “100% ineffective” according to them in view of the current spread of the virus.
The checks that can be made by the managers of places and activities subject to the pass pave the way for a “totalitarian society”, also denounced the presidential candidate. The Communists are also against it. Just like the RN, whose spokesperson Sébastien Chenu would prefer “to target people at risk and not to force all French people”.
For Olivier Véran, “the refusal of vaccination carries many of the sad passions of which our society is capable”. Adept at scratching, he took advantage of an intervention by the deputy Martine Wonner, figure of the covidosceptics to throw a mocker at him: “chloroquine, that is not smoked”.
These votes of opponents will be insufficient to derail the text but tensions around the future law remain high. Several elected officials have reported threats. At the call of the former FN Florian Philippot, a gathering of several dozen anti-pass was organized near the Bourbon Palace where security has been increased.
Also read:Vaccine pass: Threats and attacks against elected officials are increasing
Against the opinion of the LREM rapporteur, the deputies voted in committee to adapt the gauges in the stadiums and rooms in proportion to their reception capacity. The government tabled a compromise amendment.
The health pass will not be necessary at work, but the government is proposing to impose an administrative fine on companies that do not play the telecommuting game.
Finally, the bill provides for a state of health emergency until March 31 in Reunion Island and Martinique. But the entry into force of the vaccination pass will be postponed overseas where the vaccination rate is lower.
Any reproduction prohibited