The clock strikes just midnight. For more than nine hours, the deputies have been examining the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass. The debates were fueled by several lively exchanges. “I am ashamed for you, I am ashamed for you, and I am ashamed for you”, has just attacked Olivier Véran to the elected (ex-LREM) Martine Wonner, anti-vaccine.
From the podium, the Minister of Health then expressed his desire to prolong the debates, with the hope of voting the text in the early morning. “We have the night in front of us”, he indicates. Article 50 paragraph 5 of the regulations of the National Assembly provides that the session can continue “on the proposal of the government, (…) to complete a discussion in progress”. Usually, such a procedure is a formality. But not this Monday evening.
Olivier Véran’s annoyance
“I am consulting the Assembly on this request. Who is for? “Asks the vice-president of the National Assembly, Annie Genevard (Les Républicains), who leads the debates. At least twenty deputies, who had escaped from the room when the sitting was suspended shortly before, then returned to their seats. The majority were obviously not ready. “We wait for everyone to settle down”, asks the elected, before counting the hands raised for more than a minute.
VIDEO. The electric evening of the National Assembly during the debates on the vaccine pass
The same situation applies to “against” votes. This time too, elected officials come back from the wings and fill the stands. “Ask yourself, because it is not possible!” », Exhorts Annie Genevard. Cries of protests erupt from the benches of the majority in the face of this arrival of representatives of the various oppositions. “You did the same,” retorts the Vice-President of the National Assembly.
The vote by show of hands takes place in a hubbub. The “against” are in the majority. “We suspend,” concludes Annie Genevard, eliciting strong applause from the oppositions. Sitting in the first row, Olivier Véran has a cold face that sweats annoyance. “It is not a question of winning or losing”, again asserts the leader of the debates, before announcing that “the meeting is adjourned”. “We can go to sleep to resume consideration of the text tomorrow under normal conditions”, exults on Twitter the deputy LFI Ugo Bernalicis.
Officially, the LREM leaders defend themselves from any “amateurism”. Guest of France Inter this Tuesday morning, government spokesman Gabriel Attal denounced a “form of friendly irresponsibility” and a “procedural step”. “The deputies The Republicans had to vote the text. They played a funny game in not voting on the amendments last night. While Valérie Pécresse, Eric Ciotti and Christian Jacob declared themselves in favor. It’s a lack of responsibility, ”annoys a minister.
The entry into force on January 15 compromised?
The “curtain call”, namely to come back to sit straight at the time of a vote to put pro-government elected representatives in difficulty, is however a well-known parliamentary technique. “The deputies of the majority were not at the rendezvous”, castigates the same minister. They had already almost been fooled at the end of last October, during the debates to extend the health pass. The main article of the text had been adopted… except for one vote. “We were so in the majority all day long that we were perhaps had, naively, for 5 minutes in the evening,” recognizes Bruno Studer, LREM deputy for Bas-Rhin.
What will happen now? The Conference of Presidents met on Tuesday morning to put the text back on the agenda. According to several parliamentary sources contacted by Le Parisien, a resumption of the debates is scheduled “around 5.30 p.m. or 6 p.m.”. It was also decided from the outset that the debates could continue overnight, by virtue of the famous article 50 paragraph 5.
There is no doubt that this text will be adopted at first reading by the Assembly, no doubt on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. It will then arrive in the hands of senators, a priori Wednesday. With the traditional parliamentary shuttle, the deputies should look again at the text at the end of the week.
“We will do everything to ensure that the bill is voted on during the week. The question is whether the Constitutional Council will be seized. Because in this case, the application deadlines will be extended, ”analyzes an elected LREM. The institution must then make a decision within a month … but an ordinance of 1958 reduces this period to eight days when the government puts forward the urgency of the situation. An entry into force on January 15, as the government wishes, promises to be ric-rac.