By a final vote of the Assembly, the French Parliament definitively adopted this Sunday evening the bill which provides for the vaccination obligation for caregivers and the controversial extension of ...

France: Parliament definitively adopts the bill extending the health pass

The text on the extension of the health pass was adopted with 156 votes in favor, 60 against and 14 abstentions.

AP - Michel Euler

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

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"With forceps" according to several elected officials, the sanitary pass has been adopted definitively.

The National Assembly ended the parliamentary marathon started Tuesday with a large vote, with 156 votes for - those of the majority and the right -, 60 against - comers from the left and the RN - and 14 abstentions.

The leader of the deputies La France rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon defended in vain a final motion of rejection, denouncing a "

conditional freedom

" with the anti-Covid pass, and inviting to "

disobey

A bit provocative, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran congratulated him on "

rediscovered national unity

", after 60 hours of discussions in total in the two chambers.

Because shortly before, it was the Senate, dominated by the right, which had approved by 195 votes for, 129 against and 17 abstentions the same text.

In a joint committee, 14 deputies and senators had reached an agreement in the early evening, after nearly four hours of meeting.

In addition to the vaccination obligation for caregivers, firefighters or professionals working with the elderly, the bill provides for an extension of the health pass (complete vaccination course, recent negative test or certificate of recovery) at the beginning of August in coffee shops, fairs and exhibitions, planes, long-distance trains and coaches, medical establishments.

Beyond November 15, the pass system can only continue with a new vote by Parliament.

The checks will be the responsibility of the administrative police and not the criminal justice system initially.

In addition, as the senators wished, it is the Health Insurance which will first control the compulsory isolation for those contaminated by the Covid, before an intervention of the police if necessary.

Finally, there will be no dismissal for people who do not respect the vaccination obligation because of their profession but a suspension of salary.

This point had been hotly debated.

The Ministry of Labor, however, regretted to AFP the deletion of the provision on possible dismissal.

According to him, this will lead to less protection for employees, because after the suspension of the employment contract, disciplinary proceedings can be initiated without the two-month period initially provided for and without the guarantee of severance pay for the employee.

Rare at this stage, a last-minute government amendment, empowering in a very structured way the prefects to impose the pass in large shopping centers, was validated in session - the measure had disappeared in the mixed committee.

The extended pass must be applied in early August.

Time is running out in the face of an outbreak of contaminations linked to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

The bill must still pass the filter of the Constitutional Council seized by Prime Minister Jean Castex and the left.

At the same time, the executive continues to push vaccination in the hope of passing the 40 million mark of first-time vaccines on Monday, one month ahead of the initial objective.

From Polynesia, where he is traveling, President Emmanuel Macron wanted to send "

a very strong message to call on everyone to be vaccinated

" to protect themselves and others.

The stake for the executive is to try to speed up a fourth epidemic wave feared by scientists and the minister as "

strong, with a hospital impact which could be very hard in mid or at the end of August

France: Parliament definitively adopts the bill extending the health pass

France: Parliament definitively adopts the bill extending the health pass

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