Continue to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the executive will decide in the coming days on the need or not to reconfine the country for a third time, the Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition, gave the green light on Wednesday evening to an extension of the state of health emergency until May 3.
One month less, all the same, than the deadline voted by the National Assembly.
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The upper house voted at first reading, by 235 votes in favor, 39 votes against and 70 abstentions, the bill once again extending this exceptional regime whose application is due to end on February 16.
LR and the centrists were overwhelmingly in favor of the extension, such as the majority RDPI groups En Marche, the RDSE groups with a radical majority and the Independents.
The PS abstained and the majority communist and environmentalist CRCE groups voted against.
"Stab the executive in the back"
"Not to vote for this extension would amount to stabbing the executive in the back in the middle of the battle," said the president of the Independent group, Claude Malhuret.
Deputies and senators will try to agree on a common text.
In case of failure, a new reading will be organized in both chambers, the Assembly having the last word.
While the Senate shortened the requested extension, from June 1 to May 3, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran deemed the date of June 1 "consistent with regard to the dynamics of the epidemic", adding that "it is the time needed for the vaccination campaign to fully produce its effects ”.
"I understand the wish for Parliament to have more frequent review clauses, if we manage to find the way to an agreement which will allow the two chambers to conclude tomorrow, I will not be against it", he said. -he adds.
However, the government unsuccessfully presented amendments to restore the June 1 deadline and reverse the changes introduced by senators.
The Senate thus wished to prohibit “any limitation of meetings in residential premises which would run up against the right to respect for private life” and to regulate quarantine or isolation measures.
Beyond one month, confinement will be put to a vote
He also provided that beyond a period of one month, a containment measure be submitted to a vote in Parliament.
He also introduced a provision allowing prefects to waive the closure of retail businesses.
The bill also postpones from April 1 to December 31 the very lapsing of the legal framework of the state of emergency.
"The Senate, the bridgehead of local authorities, if it supports your policy, it will undoubtedly be more effective, because it is better understood by the French," said rapporteur LR Philippe Bas, while the threat of a third confinement.
The centrist Philippe Bonnecarrère also warned against the danger of a "tête-à-tête" between the head of state and the citizens.
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"We are today in an extreme weariness of our compatriots", warned left Marie-Pierre de La Gontrie (PS), saying fear "a feeling not of revolt, but of refusal".
The president of the CRCE group Eliane Assassi, for her part, refused "this auctioning of individual and collective freedoms".
The state of health emergency was applied from March 23 to July 10, 2020, and again since October 17.