“Optimistic and confident” but without “certainties”: the Minister of Health Olivier Véran participated Thursday in the National Assembly in a final debate on the management of the Covid-19 health crisis, in a dispassionate climate but weighed down by the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
A “fundamental debate a little out of step with the situation that concerns us all”, summarized Mr. Véran, referring to “the noise and images of missiles in the Ukrainian sky”.
Far from the fiery exchanges which punctuated the examinations of the 12 health emergency texts, government and political groups were able to deliver satisfaction or grievances on the management of the Covid-19 epidemic. This continues to decline, with all the health indicators falling, which gives hope for the government to lift the vaccination pass in mid-March.
Mr. Véran paid tribute to the 137,000 dead but also to the caregivers, “white hussars” of the Republic, taking stock in defense of the action of the executive, while the latter began the “gradual lifting of the measures of braking” of the epidemic.
Against “the Cassandra”, more than 54 million French people received at least one dose of vaccine, he underlined.
“We must not raise our arms too soon before the finish line”, he however warned. “We are optimistic and confident but (there are) no certainties”.
Radically different findings for LR and LFI.
“The rule of law has been shaken up” with significant restrictions on freedoms, castigated Philippe Gosselin (LR).
“Circumstances cannot absolve your policy for two years”, criticized Mathilde Panot, leader of the LFI deputies, firing red balls at government action but also at the vaccination pass, “authoritarian fantasy”.
The only blow of heat during this succession of speeches, the president LREM of the commission of the Laws Yaël Braun-Pivet rose against Mrs. Panot who accused the deputies of “waxing the pumps of the ministers”.
“A shame, a scandal,” castigated Ms. Braun-Pivet.
On the merits, “it will be up to parliamentarians to reflect on emergency regimes that could apply in the future”, she pleaded, considering “a constitutionalization of states of emergency to better supervise them”.
MPs applaud during the last session of questions to the government before April 2022, on February 22, 2022 at the National Assembly, in Paris
© AFP – Thomas COEX
Figure of the covid-skeptics, the non-registered deputy Martine Wonner (ex-LREM) once again attacked government policy, attributing to vaccines “deleterious consequences” on health: “miscarriages”, “multiple cancers”, ” Creutzfeld Jacob’s disease” or “AIDS”, echoing claims from the anti-vaccine sphere.
Mr. Véran retorted by criticizing a “conspiratorial delirium” which has “no place in the hemicycle”.
“The vaccine will never give AIDS or Creutzfeld-Jacob,” insisted the minister.
“Everyone here is covered by parliamentary immunity” but “sometimes the mandates stop one day” and those who make these comments “will be liable to be brought to justice”, he said, explicitly targeting the MP Wonder.
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