After an agitated adoption by the deputies, the Senate dominated by the right-wing opposition in turn seized on Tuesday the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass that it should vote on at first reading, but with “adjustments”.
The examination in the hemicycle, that the LR chairman of the Law Commission François-Noël Buffet wishes “appeased and serious”, is scheduled from Tuesday followingnoon and can continue on Wednesday, evenings included.
“There will still be difficult debates,” the rapporteur LR Philippe Bas warned on Monday evening following the vote on the amended text in committee.
The president of the Senate Gérard Larcher will himself be on the set to kick off the discussion, a priori pledge of a good holding of the exchanges, following three days and nights of agitated debates last week in the National Assembly, electrified by the controversial remarks of Emmanuel Macron, ready to “piss off the unvaccinated”.
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran, whom the senators reproach for being rare at the Luxembourg Palace, will also be present for the opening of the debates.
“We will vote overwhelmingly the vaccine pass”, promised Monday the president of the LR group Bruno Retailleau, in an interview with Les Echos. The centrists should be on the same line.
The PS senators can for their part hardly oppose the vaccination pass while they advocate a general vaccination obligation. But they reserve their position.
As adopted by the deputies, the text provides that the over 12s must be able to justify a vaccination status to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport. A negative test will no longer suffice, except for access to health establishments and services.
The deputies postponed from 12 to 16 years the need for a vaccination pass for school trips and peri and extracurricular activities.
Senators have simplified things by planning to limit the possibility of requiring the presentation of a vaccination pass to people over 18 years of age. Minors aged 12 to 17 would remain subject to the obligation to present a health pass.
– Extinguishing mechanism –
Another major change, to which the Republicans are particularly keen: Mr. Bas has provided for a mechanism for “automatic extinction” of the vaccination pass.
Thus, it might only be imposed when the number of hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 exceeds 10,000 patients nationally and automatically disappears below this threshold. Hospitals now have nearly 23,000 patients sick with Covid, according to figures from health authorities.
Below the threshold of 10,000 patients, the vaccination pass might only be maintained in the departments where the complete vaccination rate is less than 80% of the population and with a high incidence rate.
The senators have also purely and simply deleted the provisions relating to the control of teleworking in companies.
On the left, the predominantly communist CRCE group, already firmly opposed to the health pass, sees the vaccination pass as “a new step in the attack on fundamental freedoms”.
The senatorial majority also has a certain number of opponents determined to the vaccination pass, such as LR Alain Houpert and Laurence Muller-Bronn, or the centrist Loïc Hervé.
Once the bill has been passed by the Senate, deputies and senators will meet in a joint committee to try to find an agreement on a common version. Possibly from Thursday, according to a parliamentary source.
“In a parliamentary debate, each assembly must be respected”, warned Mr. Retailleau.
In case of failure, a new reading will be organized in both chambers. The Assembly would have the last word, but the timetable might be difficult to keep, especially in the event of an appeal to the Constitutional Council.
The government is now advancing the date of January 17 for the entry into force of the law, a “playable” objective, Minister responsible for Relations with Parliament Marc Fesneau ruled on Monday.
“When we have the vaccine step we can continue to have normal activities being careful. We will hold on while this virus is running and we will defeat it”, pleaded for his part Emmanuel Macron Monday evening from Roya.
