France prepares bill on extension of health passport

The French government is preparing a bill to be debated in parliament on the extension of its health passport scheme, it has been reported.

Published: 20 September 2021 15:58 CEST

France prepares bill on extension of health passport

Photo: Joel Saget/AFP

The pass sanitaire (health passport) is currently in use in France and requires visitors to a range of venues including bars, cafés, cinemas, tourist sites and long-distance train travel to show proof of either vaccination, recent recovery from Covid or a recent negative Covid test.

The pass was introduced in June and from August 9th expanded to include everyday venues such as cafés, gyms, theatres and museums.

The system is currently in place until November 15th and if the government wants to extend it, that will require a full debate in parliament.

And on Monday, Prime Minister Jean Castex’s team announced that he was preparing just that – according to French newspaper Le Parisien the extension bill will be presented to the Council of Ministers on October 13th.

If they approve, it would then move on to a debate of the full parliament.

The extension bill comes after several ministers as well as President Emmanuel Macron had suggested that the use of the health pass could be relaxed in several areas as infection rates in France continue to fall.

The extension of the health pass and the accompanying state of health emergency would allow the government to reintroduce measures without a parliamentary debate should the situation take a turn for the worse.

The health passport and legislation to make vaccination compulsory for health and emergency workers has been credited as being a major factor in turning around France’s vaccination programme and helping the country to achieve a vaccination rate of over 90 percent for adults.

It has not been uncontroversial, however, with weekly demonstrations attracting tens of thousands of people onto the street, despite a fall in turnout in recent weeks.

Member comments

Anonymous - 22 September 2021 at 08:05 CEST

Good. It’s no hardship to show proof of having a vaccination even though one can still catch and spread it.
Anonymous - 22 September 2021 at 13:36 CEST

I just wish they could get through the lot of requests , its hard to plan a trip when you don’t know when the QR code will be granted. I received mine two weeks ago, my wife’s is still stuck in construction?

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The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) is currently far ahead in opinion polls for the June 9th elections in France, with Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party in a battle for second place with the Socialists.

The debate between Attal, 35, and Bardella, 28, who leads the RN’s list in the EU elections, will be the first head-to-head clash between the two leading figures in a new French political generation.

Polls have been making increasingly uncomfortable reading for Macron, who has had to fly to the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia to try to calm the violent unrest there.

Coming third would be a disaster for the president, who portrays himself as a champion of European democracy and bulwark against the far right.

The head of Macron’s party list for the elections, the little known Valérie Heyer, has failed to make an impact and was widely seen as losing a debate with Bardella earlier this month.

According to a Toluna-Harris Interactive study for French media, the presidential camp is stuck at just 15 percent of the vote and in a dogfight for second place with the Socialists – who are on 14.5 percent – led by former commentator Raphael Glucksmann.

The RN, by contrast, is soaring ahead on 31.5 percent.

The RN’s figurehead Marine Le Pen, who has waged three unsuccessful presidential campaigns, has sought to bring the RN into the political mainstream as she eyes another tilt at the presidency in 2027.

“There is a very clear signal that must be sent to Emmanuel Macron. He must suffer the worst possible defeat to bring him back to earth,” Le Pen told CNews and Europe 1 this week.

Bardella, who took over the party leadership from his mentor, is key to Le Pen’s strategy, a gifted communicator of immigrant origin with an expanding following on TikTok.

Attal, also one of the best debaters in Macron’s government, is expected to seek to portray Bardella as an extremist, complacent over the threat posed by Russia and who has little interest in Europe.

Apparently aware of the danger, Bardella on Tuesday said the RN will no longer sit in the EU parliament with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, indicating it had lost patience with the controversies surrounding its German allies.

The head of the AfD’s list in the polls, Maximilian Krah, had said in a weekend interview that someone who had been a member of the SS in Nazi Germany was “not automatically a criminal”.

Bardella is “putting his credibility and the future of his movement on the line in the debate”, said the Le Monde daily, adding that a strong performance could see some RN supporters regard him as a stronger candidate in 2027 than Le Pen.

You can find a more detailed profile of Attal HERE and a look at Bardella HERE