Alexis Delafontaine with AFP
Coup de theater at the National Assembly on the night of Monday to Tuesday when the examination of the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass was the subject of a surprise suspension, after a majority of deputies refused by a show of hands the continuation of the debates.
It started with heated debates and ended with a surprise recess. The examination of the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass was interrupted by the deputies on Monday evening, January 3, after a majority of elected officials voted by show of hands against the continuation of the debates after midnight. What really happened yesterday to cut short such an important debate? Europe 1 takes stock.
LFI and LR wanted to take their time
It all started at 11:55 p.m., the session on the vaccine pass project was suspended and the group presidents did not agree to extend the session. There are more than 500 amendments left, La République en Marche wants to move quickly while La France Insoumise and Les Républicains want to take their time.
Midnight sharp, the resumption by a show of hands and it is the thunderclap: the opposition wins. Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health who came to defend his law knows it, his promise to apply the vaccination pass on January 15 takes a very big blow to the head. Now we will have to reschedule a meeting and it is not an easy task… This week the assembly is under the control of the Republicans and their agenda is already very busy. In addition, each day lost also delays the passage to the Senate.
No gifts to the majority
On the right we say it openly, “no question of giving gifts to the majority on this”. But it is a politically dangerous game for Republicans. Their boss Valérie Pécresse spoke in favor of the vaccination pass, but the deputies vote against and prevent its application. Surely enough to stir up divisions within a newly reconstituted family.
650 amendments
The text was supposed to be examined in the Senate on Wednesday and Thursday, after its passage through the Palais-Bourbon and the vote of more than 650 amendments by the deputies, which was to constitute record time. But the suspension intervened Monday evening, when the debates were to be held until the early hours of the morning, shows that the tensions around its content remain very high. In addition to opponents of the very principle of the vaccination pass, deputies from all sides regretted that the latter should apply, as provided for in the text, to adolescents from 12 to 17 years old.