French officials today pledged to enforce a law in mid-January that would block access to shelters for the unvaccinated against coronavirus, although debate on the bill in parliament was suspended after midnight on Monday. .
“January 15 remains our goal to bring the law into force,” European Affairs Minister Clement Bonn told LCI.
Tensions over the new law, which would abolish the option of showing a negative test instead of vaccination, were suspended after midnight on Monday following a vote in which a majority of MPs voted in favor of suspending the sitting.
The leaders of the various parliamentary groups will now have to set a new date for the resumption of the debate, as announced by the Vice President of the National Assembly, Annie Genevard.
Once passed in the National Assembly, the new law must be ratified by the Senate before it enters into force on January 15.
France has imposed the coronavirus health pass, which means that in order to enter restaurants, cafes or cinemas and board a train, one must either show a negative test or a vaccination certificate.
The legislation aims to remove the option of showing a negative test, effectively prohibiting the unvaccinated from entering accommodation or on trains.
In addition to granting access to many areas of public life, the draft law would carry heavier penalties for those who circulate with a fake or foreign vaccination pass and for those places that did not carry out the necessary checks on the relevant documents.
Those found to have a forged certificate will face up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
The bill has met with strong opposition from vaccinators and far-right and far-left organizations, but is backed by the government, which has a majority in parliament.
The spokesman for the French government, Gabriel Atal, today condemned the “irresponsibility” of the opposition forces that wanted to “derail” the bill that would turn the health care card into a vaccination card, referring to the party of the radical French “Left”. , in the “National Alarm”, the far-right party of Marin Le Pen, and in the conservative party of the Republicans (LR).
But if the opposition “obviously succeeded” with their “coup” (…) “we will do everything we can to keep the scheduled date (January 15) as high as we can,” Atal added.
The controversial legislation aims to persuade the remaining five million unvaccinated citizens over the age of 12 in the country to be vaccinated at a time when coronavirus cases are on the rise across France.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus last week led to an increase in confirmed daily cases to over 160,000 with some days exceeding 200,000.
Responding to the reactions of those who claim that the law violates civil liberties, the country’s Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Olivier Veran, said that “selfishness is often hidden behind the supposed freedom.”
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