The National Assembly voted definitively on Sunday evening for the bill on the extension of the health pass and the vaccination obligation of caregivers to fight against the health crisis of the coronavirus. The deputies voted by 156 votes for, 60 against and 14 abstentions this text which reflects the announcements of July 12 of Emmanuel Macron and had been the subject of an agreement with the senators in the afternoon.
"With forceps" according to several elected officials, the health pass was adopted definitively Sunday evening, deputies and senators having reached a compromise on this controversial text, the day after a new day of mobilization of his opponents. 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, from the left and the RN and 14 abstentions.
The leader of the LFI deputies 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 providing for the extended pass and also the vaccination obligation for caregivers.
In a joint committee, 14 deputies and senators had reached an agreement in the early evening, after nearly four hours of meeting.
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.
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).
No layoffs for the unvaccinated
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 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. Rare at this stage, a last minute government amendment,enabling the prefects to impose the pass in large shopping centers in a very structured way, was validated during the meeting - the measure had disappeared in the joint committee.
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 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.
A mobilization "for freedom" and "against the health dictatorship"
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.
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.