There was no suspense. The Parliament definitively adopted Thursday evening the bill organizing the exit from the state of health emergency on July 11, with possible restrictions until the fall, assimilated by the opposition to an extension in "trompe l'oeil" Of this exceptional regime.
The Assembly voted for the last time by 50 votes to 12 and one abstention with the support of LREM, MoDem and Agir, but without the votes of other groups on the right and on the left. The Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition, had previously examined it one last time in the morning, rejecting it straight away. Came into force on March 24 in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic, the state of health emergency, which allows certain public freedoms to be restricted, had been extended in May until July 10.
Overseas exception
The government intends to put an end to it, with the exception of Guyana and Mayotte where it will be extended "until October 30 inclusive", because the virus is still actively circulating there, and even very actively in Guyana where the peak of the epidemic is planned "mid-July-end of July".
For the rest of the country, the text allows for the same period restrictions on the movement of people, the reception of the public in certain establishments or gatherings.
Defending "a crest line", "the only alternative" between a "dry exit" from the state of emergency and an extension, the government has hammered out the need for "vigilance" in the face of the risk of a "second murderous wave" of the virus. For the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, most of the state of health emergency "disappears", but "not to keep certain measures would be to pretend that the risks of restarting (of the epidemic) do not did not exist ”. If it were necessary to decide on a new containment, such as the one put in place from March 17, the government would have to declare a state of health emergency again.
"Gray area"
The restrictions on freedoms allowed by the text, deemed too strict by the Senate, prevented an agreement with the deputies last week. The president of the commission of the laws of the upper house, Philippe Bas (LR), repeated Thursday morning having the impression that the government "wants to keep the means of the state of emergency without saying it".
The Senate had sought at first reading to be "constructive", by reducing the scope of possible restrictions. However, MEPs then reintroduced the possibility of prohibiting the circulation or ordering the temporary closure of establishments in certain parts of the territory in which an active circulation of the virus is observed.
The text also makes it possible to impose tests for people traveling by plane between overseas territories and France. Assembly rapporteur Marie Guévenoux (LREM) again challenged a "state of emergency that doesn't say her name" on Thursday. She pleaded the need not to be “destitute” and to be able to react quickly in a “targeted” way in front of “clusters”. But opposition on the right and on the left renewed their criticism of a form of "gray area".
In the name of LR, Thibault Bazin spoke of a “watered down version of the state of health emergency”, the UDI also expressing reservations about this “lightened” version. Same criticism of a "false exit" at the other end of the hemicycle with a state of emergency "trompe l'oeil (PS)," disguised "(EDS group) or" dangerous "(PCF), Alexis Corbière denouncing a project "which reduces freedoms" and worrying in particular about obstructions to the right to demonstrate while the return to school will be "hard".
- Coronavirus