The National Assembly has definitively adopted the bill governing the exit from the state of emergency and the establishment of a health pass this Tuesday, May 25, 2021. – Jacques Witt / SIPA
Despite its controversial points, the text passed. This Tuesday evening, the National Assembly definitively adopted by 119 votes against 51 (and 24 abstentions) the bill governing the exit from the state of emergency. It is a “point of balance between enthusiasm and prudence”, underlined the Secretary of State to the Minister of Solidarity and Health Adrien Taquet.
If the bill still has to pass before the Senate on Thursday, which will be worth final adoption by Parliament, the left has already announced that it would initiate a next appeal, in particular concerning certain points such as the establishment of a “health pass “. “It sins as much by its effectiveness on the health plan as by its authoritarianism”, denounced Eric Coquerel (LFI) who, with the Communists and the Socialists, will seize the Sages of the Constitutional Council after the vote of the Senate.
Limitation of the use of curfews and local confinements
The new transitional regime will end on September 30, and not at the end of October as the executive initially wished. The text provides a legal framework for the deconfinement measures announced by the executive, without lowering our guard against the hypothesis of an epidemic resumption. It has been significantly altered when it passed through the hands of parliamentarians from the two assemblies and then in the mixed joint committee (CMP).
Deputies and senators in particular noted the limitation of the use of curfews and local confinements within the framework of this transitional regime. The first remains possible and planned until the end of June. After this period, if the executive plans to use it again, it will then have to declare a state of emergency again for a period limited to 30 days, before possibly returning to Parliament. Furthermore, the local reconfigurations provided for by law can only be decided on for a maximum of one month without the Parliament being consulted.
A pass only until September?
The health pass will be limited to large gatherings and subject to safeguards limiting attacks on individual freedoms. “The health pass has given rise to legitimate questions,” admitted Adrien Taquet. But he “must not be demonized”, warned Guillaume Gouffier-Cha (LREM). “We will oppose any extension” after September, but “this pass seems to us today to give a certain number of guarantees”, noted Philippe Gosselin for the LR group, whose position on the text has evolved into “vigilant abstention “.
The health pass will make access to major events – more than 1,000 people according to the government’s promise – subject to presentation of a negative virus screening result, proof of vaccination, or even a certificate of recovery after contamination. The Modem deputies, who had tripped the majority at first reading by opposing its key points, voted the bill almost unanimously.