Paris (AFP)

The anti-Covid health pass was about to be adopted definitively on Sunday evening, deputies and senators having reached a compromise on this controversial text, the day after a new day of mobilization of its opponents.

The 14 parliamentarians gathered in a joint joint committee recorded their agreement in the early evening, after nearly four hours of meeting.

And the Senate, dominated by the right, adopted the text in the wake of 195 votes for, 129 against and 17 abstentions.

A last-minute government amendment, empowering the prefects in a very structured way to impose the health pass for certain shopping centers, was validated - the measure had disappeared in the joint committee.

The final adoption of the bill will come back to the deputies overnight.

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.

The Senate had voted for the first time on the night of Saturday to Sunday the bill which provides for the vaccination obligation for caregivers and the controversial extension of the health pass.

But with important modifications compared to the text approved by the National Assembly, which were not to the liking of the government.

Deputies and senators, however, reached a compromise.

Thus 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.

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- not "delinquents" -

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

"We could not treat the French as delinquents", according to Senator Hervé Marseille (Centrist Union).

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 discussed in both chambers.

"The Covid is temporary, the layoffs are final", argued the LR rapporteur in the Senate Philippe Bas.

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

According to him, this will result in 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.

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.

Once adopted, the text will still have to pass the filter of the Constitutional Council seized by Prime Minister Jean Castex and the left.

After a first national mobilization on July 17, dozens of demonstrations again took place on Saturday.

"For freedom" and "against the health dictatorship": more than 160,000 people, according to the Interior Ministry, marched across the country, including 11,000 in Paris.

One of the Parisian processions, made up mainly of "yellow vests", was punctuated by sporadic incidents.

At the call of the President of the Patriots Florian Philippot, several thousand people also gathered at the Trocadéro.

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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".

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.

The Calvados prefecture announced a "voluntary experiment" from Sunday in the bars and restaurants of Deauville and Trouville, in the face of a sharp increase in cases.

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