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POLITICS

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.

READ ALSO When and where you need a health passport in France

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.

READ ALSO 6 reasons France’s vaccination programme improved so dramatically

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

  2. 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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POLITICS

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

President Emmanuel Macron warned that the policies of his far-right and hard-left opponents could lead to ‘civil war’, as France prepared for its most divisive election in decades.

Published: 25 June 2024 08:37 CEST
Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

French politics were plunged into turmoil when Macron called snap legislative elections after his centrist party was trounced by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in a European vote earlier this month.

Weekend polls suggested the RN would win 35-36 percent in the first round on Sunday, ahead of a left-wing alliance on 27-29.5 percent and Macron’s centrists in third on 19.5-22 percent.

A second round of voting will follow on July 7th in constituencies where no candidate takes more than 50 percent in the first round.

Speaking on the podcast Generation Do It Yourself, Macron, 46, denounced both the RN as well as the hard-left France Unbowed party.

He said the far-right “divides and pushes towards civil war”, while the hard-left La France Insoumise, which is part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, proposes “a form of communitarianism”, adding that “civil war follows on from that, too”.

Reacting to Macron’s comments, far-right leader Jordan Bardella told French news outlet M6: “A President of the Republic should not say that. I want to re-establish security for all French people.”

Bardella, the RN’s 28-year-old president, earlier Monday said his party was ready to govern as he pledged to curb immigration and tackle cost-of-living issues.

“In three words: we are ready,” Bardella told a news conference as he unveiled the RN’s programme.

READ ALSO What would a far-right prime minister mean for foreigners in France?

Bardella has urged voters to give the eurosceptic party an outright majority to allow it to implement its anti-immigration, law-and-order programme.

“Seven long years of Macronism has weakened the country,” he said, vowing to boost purchasing power, “restore order” and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.

He reiterated plans to tighten borders and make it harder for children born in France to foreign parents to gain citizenship.

Bardella added that the RN would focus on “realistic” measures to curb inflation, primarily by cutting energy taxes.

He also promised a disciplinary ‘big bang’ in schools, including a ban on mobile phones and trialling the introduction of school uniforms, a proposal previously put forward by Macron.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of Macron’s Renaissance party poured scorn on the RN’s economic programme, telling Europe 1 radio the country was “headed straight for disaster” in the event of an RN victory.

On Tuesday, Attal will go head-to-head with Bardella and the leftist Manuel Bompard in a TV debate.

On foreign policy, Bardella said the RN opposed sending French troops and long-range missiles to Ukraine – as mooted by Macron – but would continue to provide logistical and material support.

He added that his party, which had close ties to Russia before its invasion of Ukraine, would be “extremely vigilant” in the face of Moscow’s attempts to interfere in French affairs.

Macron insisted that France would continue to support Ukraine over the long term as he met with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

“We will continue to mobilise to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs,” he said alongside Stoltenberg at the Elysee Palace.

The election is shaping up as a showdown between the RN and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire, which is dominated by the hard-left La France Insoumise.

Bardella claimed the RN, which mainstream parties have in the past united to block, was now the “patriotic and republican” choice faced with what he alleged was the anti-Semitism of Mélenchon’s party.

La France Insoumise, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza and refused to label the October 7th Hamas attacks as ‘terrorism’, denies the charges of anti-Semitism.

In calling an election in just three weeks Macron hoped to trip up his opponents and catch them unprepared.

But analysts have warned the move could backfire if the deeply unpopular president is forced to share power with a prime minister from an opposing party.

RN powerhouse Marine Le Pen, who is bidding to succeed Macron as president, has called on him to step aside if he loses control of parliament.

Macron has insisted he will not resign before the end of his second term in 2027 but has vowed to heed voters’ concerns.

Speaking on Monday, Macron once again defended his choice to call snap elections.

“It’s very hard. I’m aware of it, and a lot of people are angry with me,” he said on the podcast. “But I did it because there is nothing greater and fairer in a democracy than trust in the people.”

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