(Paris) The French Parliament on Friday authorized the possible use of the health passport until July 31, 2022, to the fury of the oppositions who accuse the power of evacuating any questioning of its anti-COVID-19 policy during the presidential election and legislative.
The National Assembly voted in a stormy atmosphere a final version of the bill of “health vigilance”, approved by 118 votes against 89 and one abstention. In the majority, only three deputies (two LREM and one MoDem) voted against the text.
The bill validated in the name of Parliament sweeps away the objections of the Senate dominated by the right, which had rejected it out of hand Thursday evening via a “preliminary question”.
On behalf of the government, Secretary of State for the Family Adrien Taquet stressed that “the provisions of the text are fully justified by the health situation and its foreseeable development in the coming months”.
Prime Minister Jean Castex, traveling to Montpellier, welcomed a text which “gives us the weapons to continue to fight this epidemic. [de COVID-19] in the coming months “.
PHOTO PASCAL GUYOT, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
Prime Minister Jean Castex
“We are not out of the epidemic, neither in France nor elsewhere, the time has not come to let our guard down,” he added, at a time when the WHO fears 500,000 new deaths by February in Europe.
Mr. Castex called for “general mobilization around vaccination” and promised a response “soon” to know if a third dose of vaccine would be taken into account in the health passport in order to encourage the most vulnerable people to use it. .
In the hemicycle, the oppositions delivered a last stand against this project denounced on the right as on the left as a “blank check” which “spans” the presidential and legislative elections.
At the very beginning of the session, a motion to reject the text presented by France Insoumise, supported by oppositions from all sides, was rebutted by 71 votes in favor, 112 against.
In a stormy atmosphere, the president of the LFI group, Mathilde Panot, denounced “the government’s health authoritarianism”.
In the majority, Isabelle Florennes (MoDem) deplored the “political postures” of the opposition, the LREM Guillaume Gouffier-Cha accusing him of cultivating “political divisions on the back of the health crisis”.
The main dispute relates to the possibility of resorting to “braking” measures, the first of which is the health passport, until July 31.
Rather than going until the summer, the Senate and the oppositions at the Palais-Bourbon plead for the date of February 28, which would force the executive to return before the elections in front of the chambers.
” Flames ”
“We are going to step over the Parliament, the presidential and legislative elections and that does not pose any question to the government”, indignant the LR Philippe Gosselin.
“No one knows who will be on the benches of the National Assembly on July 31,” said UDI Pascal Brindeau for his part.
Socialist Lamia El Aaraje lambasted a “carte blanche” to the government “devoid of any parliamentary control”.
For its part, the government emphasizes that a parliamentary debate on the subject would take place around February 15. Without convincing the oppositions who demand a proper examination of government policy with a decision-making vote.
The deputies of the majority defended the device of the passport, judged “flexible and which has proved its worth” and in the end well accepted by a large majority of the French.
The “walkers” also stress that a possible return to the state of health emergency (confinement, curfew …), lifted in June, would be subject to the approval of parliamentarians.
The Republicans and the left have already provided for appeals to the Constitutional Council.
Another controversial provision, the bill allows school directors and secondary school principals to learn about the vaccination status of students.
According to the government, a measure intended to facilitate in particular screening and vaccination campaigns in schools, but denounced by the opposition as a “breach in medical confidentiality”.
The bill also extends the state of emergency in Guyana and Martinique to December 31.