Emmanuel Macron.

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Stephane Lemouton-POOL / SIPA

  • Emmanuel Macron will hold a meeting with members of the government next week to prepare the establishment of a "health pass", which should allow restaurants and cultural places to reopen.

  • This device, which will allow in particular to identify negative tests for Covid-19, does not achieve consensus in the political class.

  • Some European states are arguing for a justification for vaccination to be integrated to allow travel more easily between now and the summer.

A month after sweeping a third confinement, Emmanuel Macron still hopes to go through the next few weeks without fully sealing the country.

The executive remains on the same line: localized restrictions and development of vaccination.

But the President of the Republic is also considering how to end the crisis.

The Head of State spoke on Thursday of the establishment of a "health pass" to allow the reopening of cultural places and restaurants closed by the pandemic, while several European states are arguing for their side for a "vaccine passport" continent-wide.

A meeting with members of the government is to be organized this week on these questions, which already divide the French political class.

Covid-19: Emmanuel Macron evokes the creation of a "health pass" pic.twitter.com/UbenwunaKM

- BFMTV (@BFMTV) February 25, 2021

A "health pass" to "make everyday life easier for the French"

"We must prepare it now technically, politically, legally", because the health pass is "an important subject", Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.

If the interministerial meeting is not yet stalled, Matignon confirms that the file is under study.

"When we arrive in April-May, which we will have protected thanks to vaccines a large part of people at risk, the virus will be more benign but will continue to circulate, we will always have to live with it," said the Prime Minister's entourage.

“The objective is therefore to have a digital tool that makes everyday life easier for the French, with a QR code at the entrance to certain places to more easily trace the chains of contamination.

This pass would also make it easier to present a recent negative test ”, we add.

Matignon today evacuates the questions on the modalities of organization of such a device, but certain elected officials of The Republic in March plead for its generalization.

"With the massive deployment of self-tests, which I hope, testing yourself could become as common as brushing your teeth," assures LREM deputy for Asia-Oceania-Eastern Europe, Anne Genetet.

"This health pass, coupled with the TousAntiCovid application, will make it possible to present these tests on a daily basis, and will facilitate individual responsibility," added the spokesperson for the group to the Assembly.

European pressure for a vaccine passport

A crucial question remains: will the health pass be a vaccination passport?

Clearly, will the application allow people to justify their vaccination in order to go to a restaurant or a concert?

If Emmanuel Macron dismissed the idea for the time being, the subject could quickly become essential for travel abroad.

“As a doctor, ethically, that poses a number of questions to me.

But under international pressure, this vaccine certification is somehow going to be mandatory.

It would be appropriate for the whole of Europe to have the same approach, ”said the LR president of the Grand Est region, Jean Rottner, on France Info this Sunday.

The question has been agitating the European Union for several weeks.

Some countries - especially those most dependent on tourism - are pushing to adopt such a document as soon as possible, like Greece.

German leader Angela Merkel has assured that these certificates will probably be available before the summer.

"The vaccine could find its place in this health pass, but we cannot condition travel within the EU to the vaccine when only 5% of the European population is vaccinated today", tempers Matignon.

"Vaccination cannot be the only key to reopening activities otherwise we create a two-speed society, very unfair", added this Sunday the Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune, while the youngest French people do not will not be vaccinated until the end of the summer according to the government plan.

The opposition castigates a "perverse health pass"

If the question divides Europe, it does not achieve a consensus within the French political class either.

The vaccine passport is thus defended by the boss of the UDI Jean-Christophe Lagarde, but its principle remains criticized by part of the opposition.

"That inside the country, we want to register all the French, have their health conditions and that in order to move […] we are obliged to show a white paw, I will fight it with all my strength", denounced this Sunday on Europe 1 Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, candidate Debout France for the 2022 presidential election. LR deputy Julien Aubert blasted him for a "perverse" system on Twitter, when rebellious MEP Manon Aubry estimated that "this debate has no meaning that vaccines are not available to everyone ”.

The last word could be given by the European Commission.

The 27 EU countries have asked it to define common standards for mutual recognition of these vaccine certificates before the summer.

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Coronavirus: Emmanuel Macron discusses the establishment of a "health pass"

  • Covid 19

  • Vaccine

  • Vaccination

  • Coronavirus

  • Emmanuel Macron