Faced with the exponential spread of the omicron variant in France, the schedule of the bill introducing the vaccine pass, announced by Jean Castex last Friday, should be brought forward by one week.
No truce of the confectioners for the deputies and the government. Faced with the outbreak of the omicron variant, which occupies an increasingly important part of some 52,000 contaminations recorded on average daily during the last seven days, the executive has decided to advance its schedule by one week. “We have decided to accelerate”, confirmed Gabriel Attal, on the steps of Matignon at the end of the consultations carried out by the Prime Minister with the local elected officials, this Tuesday morning. The bill introducing the vaccine pass must be presented to an extraordinary council of ministers from Monday, December 27, “Which will allow Parliament to be in a position to examine this text from next week, between Christmas and New Year’s Day”, said the government spokesperson. The objective being to definitively adopt the text, no longer at the end of January, but “from the first fortnight “ of the month.
“Period of strong turbulence”
“We would have a law commission on December 29, with a hearing of Olivier Véran, and an examination in the hemicycle from January 3,” explained to Release the deputy Jean-Pierre Pont (LREM), tipped to be again the rapporteur of the text. A sprint justified, according to Gabriel Attal, by the push of the Omicron variant, which would now concern “One in three contamination in Paris”.
The scope of the vaccination pass remains to be determined. If it is accepted that it will concern the same places as the sanitary pass, that is to say restaurants, sports halls or showrooms and everyday transport, the vagueness remains on the fate granted to the business world. Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne assured Monday that “Nothing is done” after a meeting where the social partners oscillated between reservations and frank opposition to a health pass in the company. Will employees and civil servants be affected by the new law? “We will have the final text on the day of its passage in the Council of Ministers”, specifies Jean-Pierre Pont. The schedule is tight. “It’s going to be a tightrope”, he breathes.
Update : addition this Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. statements by Gabriel Attal during his press briefing.