The health pass continues to stir. Several mayors, including the National Rally, refuse that their municipal police control the famous sesame on the terrace, or even in all bars and restaurants, denouncing a measure “inapplicable” and “liberticide”. But are the city officials legal, while the pass was indeed extended Monday to cafes and places to eat, for a week of “running in”, before possible fines?
What are the mayors saying?
“The State invited the mayors to involve their municipal police in controlling this pass in establishments open to the public (restaurants, bars, etc.). This will not be the case in Fréjus ”, affirms in particular the mayor RN of Fréjus, David Rachline, in a forum in Current values. The vice-president of Marine Le Pen’s party ensures that his municipal agents will not participate
“To the coping of restaurateurs”, but will continue “to devote themselves fully to the safety of Fréjusiens and tourists and to the fight against delinquency and incivility”.
This is also the case for the RN mayors of Hayange (Moselle) and Beaucaire (Gard), just like Robert Ménard in Béziers (Hérault), who remains in favor of the health pass. There are also opponents of these controls on the right, as in Vias in the Hérault. DVD Mayor Jordan Dartier also believes that this is not the mission of municipal police. “I ask them not to control the health pass in establishments open to the public – bars, restaurants …”, he assures AFP. This argument was already defended on July 24 by the Union for the defense of municipal police officers.
Is it legal?
the General code of local and regional authorities says this: “the mayor is in charge, under the administrative control of the representative of the State in the department, of the municipal police, of the rural police and of the execution of the acts of the State which are relative to it”. For Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, two things are certain: “a mayor cannot refuse to apply the law of the Republic at the risk of a possible suspension and, moreover, the municipal police officers. are well qualified to control the sanitary pass, such as
provided for in Article L31.36-1 of the Public Health Code for Covid-related offenses ”.
But if the municipal agents are well qualified, a mayor could however choose to assign them to other missions. “It is here subtle, everything is played on the question of obligation. The mayors indicate here that they will not specifically ask their police to control the passes. They do not prohibit it, but they believe that the police have other priorities, ”adds the specialist. In these municipalities, the national police will of course still be able to carry out these checks.
How did the government react?
At the Ministry of the Interior, it is confirmed that municipal police officers “are authorized” to note “violations of the Covid regulations”, but “however, have no obligation to carry out checks” of the health pass, whose organization “is at the discretion of their employment authority, that is to say of the mayor and his services”.
Political choice or a simple publicity stunt? These announcements by RN mayors have sparked controversy in the Var. Prefect Evence Richard blasted in Var Morning “A political maneuver” by the mayor of Fréjus, “aimed at instrumentalizing the health situation of our country and our department, without any regard for the protection and health of our fellow citizens”. The person concerned criticized this exit of the prefect on Twitter in the wake: “you can if you wish to go and paste the posters of Emmanuel Macron, but please, outside your working hours”. What to undermine the famous couple “mayor-prefect” touted by the government to fight against the epidemic.