(Paris) There was no final twist on Sunday, after two turbulent weeks: Parliament definitively adopted, by a final vote of the Assembly, the controversial bill establishing the vaccine passport from 16 years, which the government wants to see come into force as soon as possible in the face of the “tidal wave” of COVID-19.
Posted at 12:39 p.m.
The text was approved by 215 votes in favour, those of the majority, two-thirds of LRs and a minority of Socialists. They were 58 deputies to vote against, including the left of the left, the UDI and the RN, and three LREM dissidents. Seven deputies abstained.
Two different appeals to the Constitutional Council are planned on the left, to guarantee respect for “fundamental freedoms”, which will postpone the promulgation for a few days.
The French “expect height from us” and “a sense of the general interest”, pressed the Minister Delegate Brigitte Bourguignon, while the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, himself affected by the virus, was absent.
In a last stand, the LFI deputies defended a motion of preliminary rejection against a bill imposing “a digital sorting” and creating “a sub-citizenship” according to them. “What have you done with your souls? “, asked François Ruffin to the majority, the day after new demonstrations in the country against this passport, less important than during the strong mobilization of the previous Saturday.
“The fight you are leading” is “already lost”, given the rush on vaccines, retorted the boss of LREM deputies Christophe Castaner.
While some 300,000 contaminations have been recorded daily on average for a week, the government hopes for the implementation of the vaccine passport around January 20.
It will then be necessary to be able to justify a vaccination status to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport. A negative test will no longer suffice, except to access health facilities and services.
Main contribution of the parliamentary debate, thanks to the Senate dominated by the right: the new passport will apply only from 16 years.
Minors aged 12 to 15 will remain subject to the obligation to present the current health passport.
The Senate had voted Saturday evening a second time in favor of this passport, but in particular by removing the possibility of identity checks on the part of cafeterias or restaurateurs in case of doubt about the holder of a passport.
The deputies, who have the last word, debated it again at length on Sunday. This control is “legally very uncertain”, “in practice ineffective” and will not be practiced, argued in vain Guillaume Larrivé (LR).
The right nevertheless considers the bill “generally useful” and does not oppose it, in line with support for the vaccine passport of candidate LR at the Élysée Palace Valérie Pécresse.
“Communications tool”
The oppositions called on the executive not to “confuse health campaign and electoral campaign”, in the words of Paul Molac (Freedoms and territories). The vaccine passport is useless, because it does not prevent contamination and serves as a “communication instrument”, raised the leader of the communist deputies André Chassaigne.
For this twelfth health text in two years, a week of examination was initially scheduled, for application on January 15. The time has doubled, between hiccups and controversies, culminating in the declarations of Emmanuel Macron, decided to “piss off” the non-vaccinated.
As early as December 29, the Assembly’s Law Commission met to study this emergency text in the face of the Omicron wave. The context was heavy, against a backdrop of renewed threats and violence against parliamentarians, often from “anti-vax”.
A long night in plenary session was then scheduled for Monday, January 3, but it was cut short due to a vote at midnight where the majority found itself in the minority.
The calendar continued to derail after the controversial remarks of Emmanuel Macron which reignited the fire in the hemicycle.
Last gasp: an agreement between deputies and senators on the bill seemed within reach on Thursday when a tweet from the president of senators LR Bruno Retailleau, claiming a “victory” before the time, was invoked to shatter this prospect .
The bill left for a last shuttle, until this adoption.