Constitutional Council: points of the health bill that are debating
The Constitutional Council will debate the sensitive points of the government's health bill.
© Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0 Mbzt
Text by: Anthony Lattier Follow
6 mins
The French government is now suspended on August 5 and the decision of the Constitutional Council on its new health bill adopted Sunday evening July 25.
Extension of the health pass, compulsory vaccination of caregivers, compulsory isolation of patients: will these restrictions be validated by the Wise Men?
Publicity
Read more
Is it justified to apply new restrictions in view of the health situation? This will be determined by the nine Wise Men of the Constitutional Council seized on Monday July 26 by the government as well as by deputies and senators. "
The Council will verify the proportionality between the restrictions on freedoms and the needs of the general interest, in this case public health
", details Anne-Marie Le Pourhiet, specialist in constitutional law.
For 16 months, the Constitutional Council has as a whole validated the heavy constraints imposed by the government, in particular the confinement and the curfew, considering that they were justified because of the dangers of the epidemic and responded to the need to protect the French.
This time, the restrictions of the
new health bill
adopted on Sunday are different.
You will need to be vaccinated or have a recent test to enter a train, plane, hospital, fair, trade fair, bar or restaurant.
Patients will have to isolate themselves.
Finally, caregivers, but also firefighters, some soldiers as well as professionals and volunteers working with the elderly will have to be vaccinated.
The Constitutional Council could twitch on several points.
Is the extension of the health pass still justified?
The Wise Men have already validated the very principle of the health pass in their
decision of May 31, 2021
.
But its extension to most activities of daily living raises questions and could be considered excessive in some cases.
"
Is the pass justified to sit on a terrace of a cafe or restaurant or to enter a hospital when you have a scheduled treatment
?"
"Asks Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble-Alpes.
The prefects may decide to apply the pass also in shopping centers "
but the criteria to decide are not very clear
".
An imprecision which involves a "
strong risk of unconstitutionality
" according to the constitutionalist Dominique Rousseau.
►Also read: After the introduction of the health pass, French cinemas are calling for help
Are the sanctions for recalcitrant employees in the nails?
Another point that is debated are the penalties provided for employees (restaurants, bars, etc.) who do not respect the health pass.
They will not ultimately be able to be dismissed as the government wanted, but their employment contract could be suspended.
On this point, the law “
leaves a void
, believes the professor of public law at the University of Lille Jean-Philippe Derosier.
She says that an employee without a valid health pass is suspended from these functions and does not receive his remuneration. Nothing more. We do not know, for example, if he is entitled to social minima and in what framework. All this remains very vague. We can consider that there is a
"negative incompetence"
, that is to say that the legislator started to legislate, but did not go to the end.
"Bernard Cohen-Hadad, president of the Confederation of medium and small enterprises of Ile-de-France, also points to a"
legal no man's land
".
Sanctions are also provided for establishments that do not control their client or user with the health pass.
They were relaxed by the senators who favored administrative rather than penal sanctions, believing that it was more proportionate.
“
Criminal sanctions are long, it's heavy, it's hard.
We preferred administrative sanctions.
Closing an establishment is immediate, it is already important.
It is a more identifiable measure and I believe acceptable
”, specifies the leader of the centrist senators Hervé Marseille who thinks that this will make it possible to overcome the obstacle of the Council.
Isolation of the sick, "
the most criticizable
" point
For several constitutional experts, the most criticized measure of the law is that which concerns the compulsory isolation of people who test positive and the penalties provided for.
"
It is individual freedom that is achieved,"
notes Serge Slama.
In principle, only a public authority can deprive of liberty.
However, this is not the case, since it is the result of the test communicated by the laboratory or the pharmacy which amounts to deprivation of liberty
”.
The only easing granted by the government on Sunday July 25, it is not the police who will enforce this obligation, but Health Insurance.
A discriminatory pass?
Some also ask the question of the inequality of access to the vaccine within the population and therefore of the discriminatory nature of the health pass which could exclude a part of the population from certain daily activities.
“
Several studies have shown that there are geographic and social inequalities in access to vaccines.
For several reasons, when you are in Seine-Saint-Denis, from an immigrant background, and from a disadvantaged social class, you have less access to the vaccine than someone with a diploma in the center of a large city.
From a point of view of reality, the health pass therefore has discriminatory effects
, ”notes Serge Slama.
But this specialist doubts that the Council decides on this point, because "
from a formal, legal point of view, everyone, the rich and the poor are treated in the same way
".
►Also read: Covid-19: in France, vaccination coverage varies greatly depending on the region
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
France
French politics
Coronavirus
our selection