Nnew twist in the already chaotic course of the bill establishing the vaccine pass: against the backdrop of the presidential campaign, a tweet from LR derailed the close agreement between deputies and senators on this text which unleashes passions.
Faced with the rampant Covid-19 epidemic, which even reached the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, tested positive on Thursday, the government is still hoping for the vaccination pass to come into force around January 20.
But the dramatic changes in Parliament keep pushing back the deadline.
While the Senate had voted in the night a significantly modified version of the text, deputies and senators met at the beginning of the afternoon at the Palais Bourbon, to try to agree on a common version of the text in a joint joint committee ( CMP).
After four hours of meeting, punctuated by several suspensions and meetings, the elected representatives of the two chambers seemed on the point of topping.
This is the moment that the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau, who was at a distance, chose to tweet that this mixed commission had “given reason to the Senate” dominated by the right, in a “victory of common sense”.
“The pass is intended to protect the French and nothing else? No offense to Emmanuel Macron,” he added.
Fury of the majority: “we work not to win or lose but (well) to protect the French”, retorted the president of the Laws Committee of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet (LREM).
This tweet is “an intolerable attack on the institutions” and the functioning of the mixed commissions which are held behind closed doors, she denounced in front of the press, by noting “the failure” of this CMP.
The LR Senate rapporteur, Philippe Bas then indicated that he wanted the meeting to resume, deploring an “overreaction” from the majority. In vain.
“No formal pretext can justify before the French the questioning of an agreement on the substance”, defended Bruno Retailleau in a press release co-signed by the president of the centrist Union group Hervé Marseille.
“Pretext”
The deputy LR Ian Boucard, member of the commission, recognized a tweet “unfortunate and null and void” but according to him, “the majority was looking for a pretext by all means to make this CMP fail”.
They “jumped at the opportunity to make us out of date”, added a senator LR. And the presidential majority to be able to point out a form of irresponsibility of the right.
“The senators have not stopped changing legs. Why? Because they do not have a backbone in the analysis of the past,” criticized Laetitia Avia (LREM).
Asked about Mr. Retailleau’s tweet, a minister told AFP: “I think it’s amateurish but now they’re going to wage war on us.”
The LR representatives had, however, given way during the negotiations on the bill.
Compromises had thus been found on the main provisions, despite significantly different versions voted on at first reading by the Assembly in an electric atmosphere a week ago, and more calmly by the Senate on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
“The modifications proposed by the Senate had only one objective: to allow an agreement within the LR”, according to the leader of the LREM deputies Christophe Castaner, who ensures that “what motivates us is the interest general, not politician gain “.
The deputies now had to deliver the book on the trade on Friday afternoon in the hemicycle.
After another reading in the upper house, probably on Saturday, the Assembly will have the last word, during the weekend or at the beginning of the week.
The first reading at the Palais Bourbon, for three days and three nights, was agitated in particular by the controversial remarks of Emmanuel Macron, ready to “piss off the unvaccinated”.
When the bill comes into force – after possible recourse to the Constitutional Council – it will be necessary to be able to justify a vaccination status to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport. A negative test will no longer suffice, except for access to health establishments and services.
14/01/2022 01:16:18 – Paris (AFP) – © 2022 AFP