drama in the Assembly where the examination of the text is suspended

Coup de theater at the National Assembly on the night of Monday to Tuesday when the examination of the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass was the subject of a surprise suspension, after a majority of deputies refused by a show of hands the continuation of the debates.

This surprise suspension, loudly greeted by the opposition, is likely to derail the timetable for the final adoption of the text by parliament initially scheduled for the end of the week.

“It is a snub for the government”, welcomed the deputy LR Julien Aubert while Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the “rebellious” welcomed a “correction” inflicted on the Minister of Health , Olivier Véran.

The minister had previously requested the agreement of the hemicycle to continue the debates after the normal closing time of the Assembly scheduled for midnight.

– “The night before us” –

“We have the night in front of us”, previously quipped Olivier Véran.

But this simple formality which was to take the deputies in a marathon examination until the early hours of the morning, turned into a new quack which causes disorder in the middle of the presidential campaign.

It will be up to the conference of parliamentary group presidents at the Palais Bourbon, which will meet on Tuesday at 10 a.m., to include the rest of the examination of the text on the Assembly’s agenda, perhaps as early as Tuesday evening or Wednesday, said a parliamentary source.

While the majority has already been taken on several occasions in lack of mobilization, over the 12 anticovid texts examined since the start of the crisis, Christophe Castaner, the boss of the LREM group called on the deputies to “remain present and mobilized throughout long week “in an internal message.

He criticized the “irresponsibility” of the oppositions, some within the group denouncing a “new blow of the curtain” of LR deputies, who arrived in force just before the vote.

“We have seen oppositions who, on many TV sets and tweets, tell us that they are in favor of the vaccine pass and support this bill and who in the Chamber, have done the opposite, played the obstruction and voted in a massive way so that the debates cease “, denounced the president LREM of the commission of the Laws, Yaël Braun-Pivet.

In the viewfinder of the majority: the attitude of the LR accused of publicly supporting the vaccination pass but of having submitted the text in the chamber to a slew of criticism and negative votes.

“There was clearly a lack of anticipation and mobilization”, however admitted a parliamentary source LREM, also deploring a “blow” of the president of the session, the LR Annie Genevard who at the end of the surprise vote was questioned by Christophe Castaner and the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.

Until then, the debates around the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass were progressing at a slow pace due to the hostility of deputies from several political groups.

– Vaccination of minors –

In a white-hot hemicycle, the debates lingered on the thorny issue of the vaccination pass for minors from 12 years old and the restrictions likely to be imposed on unvaccinated young people.

At the end of the day, skirmishes between Olivier Véran and a few deputies on the right and on the left, and a strong tackle targeting Martine Wonner, muse of the covidosceptics.

“I am ashamed for you”, thundered Mr. Véran to the address of the non-attached member after remarks deemed defamatory on the consequences of the vaccination of children.

Faced with the “tidal wave” of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the bill provides for transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport.

The government wants to further increase the pressure on the nearly five million French people aged 12 and over who have not been vaccinated.

To have a complete vaccination schedule, it will be necessary, from February 15, to carry out its booster dose four months – and no longer up to seven months – after its second dose, knowing that an infection is always equivalent to an injection. .

The health pass will not be necessary at work, but the government is proposing to impose an administrative fine on companies that do not play the telecommuting game.

The bill also provides for a state of health emergency until March 31 in Reunion Island and Martinique. But the entry into force of the vaccination pass will be postponed overseas where the vaccination rate is lower.

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