« 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… » The vice-president Les Républicains (LR) of the National Assembly, Annie Genevard, tries not to forget anyone. Dozens of deputies, still standing, raise their hands as they return to their seats. The count of this vote by show of hands, which lasts nearly five minutes, is laborious. Before the verdict of the one who leads the meeting, under the wide eyes of the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, and the cries of joy from the opposition: « On suspend. » The twist can only be achieved by four small voices. On the night of Monday 3 to Tuesday 4 January, 125 deputies against 121 voted against an extension of the debates at the Palais-Bourbon, on the vaccination pass, after the normal closing time scheduled at midnight. A heavy blow for the government.
While Mr. Véran had expressed his desire to“Go to the end of this text and without delay”, by continuing the debates until dawn if necessary, the timetable foreseen by the executive is turned upside down. With this quack, it is now difficult to aim for a final adoption of the bill at the end of the week, as initially planned. And thus implement this tool wanted by the government from January 15, as hoped, in order to push the French even more to be vaccinated. In the midst of the “tidal wave” of Covid-19, doped by the Omicron variant, which is breaking contamination records – nearly 300,000 new cases were recorded on Tuesday – the macronists are enraged.
“Lack of mobilization”
The pill is all the harder to swallow as they must accept the mockery of the opposition, which denounces “Amateurism” of the majority. An angle of attack often used since the beginning of the legislature against the deputies of La République en Marche (LRM), most of them novices during their election, in order to discredit them. Criticism is easy, but in fact the majority have sinned for lack of anticipation. Given their numerical advantage over the opposition (the LRM-MoDem and Agir groups total nearly 350 elected), the troops should have been large enough to vote for the extension of the meeting. “What happened is the direct and main responsibility of the majority, it is a lack of mobilization”, regretted the leader of the MoDem deputies, Patrick Mignola.
A quack that is not due to a fundamental disagreement: apart from rare exceptions, all the deputies of the majority are in favor of the vaccination pass. The main reason is a lack of attention and a sort of fluctuation in the ranks when it comes time to vote. Several of them had given themselves a break, before resuming the debates, thinking they had enough time to come back and vote. Some were in the process of eating, others were leaving their place to a colleague … They were finally overtaken by the vote and found themselves in the minority facing those of the opposition, who were present. in number. A classic “blow of the curtain” in parliamentary functioning.
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