The debate on the vaccine pass is open to Parliament. MPs are the first to consider government bill “Strengthening the tools for managing the health crisis”, which mainly aims to replace the health pass by a vaccination pass, for anyone 12 years of age and over. A text “Cool and responsible”, defended the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, in front of an agitated hemicycle, while France faces the “Vertiginous” “tidal wave” caused by the Omicron variant.
The law project “Responds to the epidemic recovery in an efficient, graduated manner. He chooses science “ and “Of responsibility”, estimated the Minister of Health in front of the deputies. Thanks to this text which provides that a negative test will no longer suffice (except for access to establishments and health services) from January 15 to obtain a health pass, the government wishes to increase the pressure on the some five million unvaccinated French people. .
By Tuesday, the French will be “53 million to have received a first injection”, continued to argue the Minister of Health. “There are the distant” vaccine and “The indifferent” : “We will manage to convince them”, he continued, before adding: “And then there are those for whom no rational register can be mobilized”, “Their fight is tiny”. “The refusal of vaccination carries a number of sad passions of which our society is capable”, finally, regretted Mr. Véran.
For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the vaccine pass is “a racket with holes”
On the benches of the National Assembly, the passage to the vaccine pass provided for in the text is however strongly criticized by part of the opposition, which has already announced that it would vote once morest the text. This is the case of the deputies of the groups La France insoumise (LFI), the French Communist Party (PCF) and the National Rally (RN). “Behind a discourse on so-called freedom too often hides a selfishness or a withdrawal into oneself”, replied Mr. Véran.
Subsequently presenting a motion for the prior rejection of the bill, which was rejected by the deputies, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, LFI deputy and candidate for the presidential election, replied to the Minister of Health, believing that this project of law sows “Chaos, mayhem”. According to the latter, the vaccination pass is “A racket with holes” and he is “100% ineffective” in view of the current spread of the Covid-19 virus.
The deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône, who advocates vaccination but has already opposed the health pass, said: “Freedom is the best protection. “ According to him, the identity checks that may be allowed by this text to the managers of places and activities subject to the vaccination pass pave the way for a “Totalitarian society”.
Responding to him, Mr. Véran accused Mr. Mélenchon of taking an example from “Two very bad presidents of the Republic”, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and former US President Donald Trump, stressing, before being reframed by several parliamentarians, that the LFI candidate himself was vaccinated.
Over 650 amendments tabled
The bill is not threatened in its adoption, however, since the government has a sufficient majority, and it is also defended. “In principle” by the deputies of the Socialist Party (PS) but also a part of the elected Republicans (LR), who want a time limit to be set for the vaccination pass. In the early evening, Monday, all the amendments to delete article 1 of the bill, which establishes the vaccination pass, were also largely rejected by a hemicycle with well-stocked benches.
After its passage through the Palais-Bourbon and the vote of more than 650 amendments by the deputies, the text will be examined in the Senate on Wednesday and Thursday, once more in record time. Still, the tensions around its content remain very high. In addition to opponents of the very principle of the vaccination pass, deputies from all sides regretted that the latter should apply, as provided for in the text, to adolescents from 12 to 17 years old.
Defenders of the text, some members of the majority also voted in committee, once morest the opinion of the rapporteur La République en Marche (LRM), an amendment tabled by one of theirs, Sacha Houlié, so that the stadium reception gauges and performance venues are adapted pro rata to their capacity. In response, the government tabled a compromise amendment.
Several elected officials from all political stripes have finally reported threats for having defended the transition from a health pass to a vaccination pass. The deputy president of the LRM group, Aurore Bergé, announced that she was going to file a complaint once morest a tweet comparing her to shorn women for collaboration following the Second World War, and denounced the intimidation aimed at “That parliamentarians no longer feel free to vote in their soul and conscience”, in an interview given to Sunday Newspaper (JDD), 1is January 2022.
