Covid-19 in France: extension of the state of health emergency approved until July 10

After a hectic week and final negotiations between deputies and senators, the Parliament definitively adopted in the evening Saturday July 9 the extension of the state of health emergency until July 10 in the face of the epidemic of the coronavirus .

Less than 24 hours before the start of deconfinement, a last vote in the National Assembly - 450 votes in favor and 84 against - made it possible to validate this sensitive text. Shortly before, the Senate, with a right-wing majority, had given the green light by 252 votes in favor, including those of the LRs, against 87.

President Emmanuel Macron has already announced that he would himself seize the Constitutional Council to control this law, with the idea that the text be promulgated Sunday evening, while the opposition worries about the restrictions in matters of public freedoms.

The president of the Senate Gérard Larcher (LR) confirmed also seize the Wise on Saturday evening, to make sure that the measures implemented are "necessary and adapted to the circumstances".

Tonight I will seize the constitutional council

Agreement on the criminal liability of public actors

Deputies and senators had agreed at the beginning of the afternoon in a joint joint committee, in particular on the sensitive point of the criminal responsibility of the public and private actors brought to implement the release of confinement from Monday.

The Senate today voted the emergency PJL. a balance text was found with the NA between the fight against the epidemic and respect for individual freedoms. The Senate also obtained a clarification on the criminal responsibility of mayors and business leaders.

The question of the criminal responsibility of decision-makers, and particularly mayors, on the front line for the reopening of schools decided by the government, had been a subject of great tension for several days between majority and opposition.

The retained text modifies the public health code to specify that account is taken of the "powers, powers and means" available to "the perpetrator" in "the crisis situation which justified the state of 'health emergency ", as well as" the nature of its missions or functions ".

Compromise on patient follow-up

Deputies and senators also found a compromise on the other "hard point" of this bill: the establishment of a follow-up of coronavirus patients and contact cases, through a file, in connection with Insurance disease.

Parliamentarians have attached guarantees to the creation of this file, which is different from the StopCovid application project. They notably limited data backup to three months.

"Brigades", including Social Security agents, will be responsible for escalating the list of contact cases. The text also provides for the possibility of quarantine or segregation upon arrival on national territory in certain cases.

La France Insoumise and the PS against

In the Assembly, the majority voted almost unanimously in favor of the text, with the exception of three abstentions by LREM deputies from the left wing.

In the opposition, a very large part of the LRs (85 for, 12 against, 6 abstentions) supported it, believing that "two red lines have been lifted" - on the criminal responsibility of decision-makers and the methods of tracing - according to the leader of the right-wing deputies Damien Abad. 

On the left, conversely, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) unsuccessfully defended a motion of prior rejection to contest the absence of "social measures" such as "free" masks and warn against the installation of 'a "surveillance society".

The Communists also denounced an "exceptional legal regime" and a "small compromise" between the Assembly and the Senate.

The PS group also voted against. Despite progress, the socialist senator Jean-Pierre Sueur denounced a text without "a line on the social emergency".

Bill to extend the health emergency. Socialist senators and deputies were unable to vote on this text due to the absence of any social measures. However the crisis is health, economic and social, and will make life more difficult for people in precariousness.

At the Palais Bourbon, the LREM rapporteur Marie Guévenoux assured that "it is not with a light heart that we are temporarily restricting public freedoms but in awareness of our responsibilities in the face of the health crisis". And she "expressed the wish that we can leave the state of health emergency on July 10".

State of health emergency: "It is not with a light heart that we temporarily restrict public freedoms but in awareness of our responsibilities. We trust the government to implement all that is necessary" said @ mguevenoux. # DirectAN #COVID pic.twitter.com/UEA323U19d

With AFP

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