• Emmanuel Macron mentioned last week the possibility "of lifting the pass [...] where the virus hardly circulates any more".

  • However, the government should present a bill in October to extend the system beyond November 15.

  • The majority hope to settle this divisive issue before the start of the presidential campaign.

"If we can stop the health pass tomorrow, I am the happiest of men."

Faced with the improvement of the epidemic situation, Emmanuel Macron mentioned last week the possibility of "living again normally" and "therefore of lifting the pass [...] where the virus hardly circulates any more", without however advancing a precise date .

A few days later, we learned that a bill to extend the device beyond November 15 was "in preparation" for presentation on October 13 in the Council of Ministers.

The executive seems to be blowing hot and cold on this divisive subject, which the majority would like to settle before the start of the 2022 presidential campaign.

The health pass, soon in common law?

On Wednesday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said that the health pass was maintained, but that the executive would "continue to work on an adaptation" taking into account the incidence rates and the percentage of the population vaccinated in each department. . "In the short term, the health situation improves, we will be able to lighten the device, and we can imagine that the territorial approach is the right one, as for the wearing of the mask in schools", assures Roland Lescure, deputy. LREM of the French in North America and spokesperson for the presidential party. “However, it is not because this weapon against the Covid-19 is becoming less useful that it should not be kept on the belt,” he adds.

It is in this spirit that the executive wants to extend the framework for the application of the health pass, which expires on November 15.

“From the end of February, the deputies will no longer be in session and we will return to the electoral period until the end of June with the legislative elections.

The government must be given the means to act in the event of epidemic peaks, ”says LREM deputy from Paris Sylvain Maillard.

“The health pass was put in place as part of an emergency law, and it has demonstrated its effectiveness.

Today, it could enter into common law, like the vaccination record for children or the driving license, that is to say as a tool that we must have on hand, and that we can go out in case of need ”, pleads Anne Genetet, Member of Parliament for Asia-Oceania-Eastern Europe and spokesperson for the LREM group.

A challenge for the 2022 campaign?

The mobilization against the device, declining week after week, remains important, with 199 rallies in France last Saturday and 80,000 demonstrators, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The extension of the measure risks again tense the debates. "At the rate things are going, we will be for two years in an exorbitant period of common law where freedoms have taken a few hits in the face", warned the deputy LR Philippe Gosselin to Franceinfo.

As the presidential election approaches, this divisive subject could become a handicap for Emmanuel Macron, while Marine Le Pen has rightly put the defense of “freedoms” at the heart of his start to the campaign. “Those who equate the health pass with a decline in freedoms represent a minority. It does not take in the opinion. There is, overall, a support for government management of the health crisis, ”we sweep in the entourage of Jean Castex.

The majority hope in any case to settle this question before the start of the presidential campaign.

"This extension debate is important, but it should not be had in the middle of an election campaign," says Roland Lescure.

Especially since the weariness of the French begins to dawn.

According to an Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey for

Le Figaro

 published on Thursday, 51% of French people are still in favor of this device, but it is six points less than at the beginning of September.

Miscellaneous

Loiret: A network of fake health passes dismantled, five people arrested

Health

Coronavirus: A local health pass under study by the government, a sensible measure or a risky bet?

  • Executive

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19

  • Health pass

  • Government