A week after being approved by Parliament, the extension of the state of health emergency until February 16, 2021 was validated by the Constitutional Council.

Far from the political consensus of last spring during the first confinement, this extension sharpened until the end the tensions and divisions between majority and oppositions.

The Constitutional Council validated Friday the extension of the state of health emergency until February 16, approved a week ago by the Parliament and which had given rise to tense debates between the majority and the oppositions.

State of health emergency until February 16, 2021

"The Constitutional Council ruled that the legislator was able, without disregarding any constitutional requirement, to extend the state of health emergency until February 16, 2021", he said in a press release, not censoring this measure as he had done it, for example, for the Avia law against online hate.

About sixty deputies, but also about sixty senators, had presented appeals against Article 1 and several provisions of the law.

The Council considered "that there was no need to call into question the assessment of the legislator according to which, on the one hand, the Covid-19 epidemic is spreading at a high speed contributing (...) to a state of health disaster endangering, by its nature and gravity, the health of the population and according to which, on the other hand, this state should last at least during the four months to come ". 

>> READ ALSO - 

Coronavirus: why the debate on the state of health emergency in the Assembly promises to be tense

Tensions and divisions between majority and oppositions

The elected officials who approached the Council considered that the extension until February 16 was "manifestly disproportionate in that it undeniably undermines the fundamental freedoms constitutionally guaranteed without constituting an adequate response likely to end the epidemic" .

Far from the political consensus of last spring during the first confinement, the extension of the state of health emergency sharpened to the end the tensions and divisions between the majority and the oppositions.

The sacred union of the political class, which had prevailed during the first epidemic wave, was shattered, while the hiccups did not spare a disorganized majority which, at the Palais Bourbon, was sometimes found in the minority.

In addition to the heart of the Avia bill on online hatred, the Sages had also censured a few weeks ago the bill on "security measures" for terrorists leaving prison.