A new text had to be written in a few days to fill a legal void. The bill to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic, examined this Wednesday during a two-hour Council of Ministers, plans to authorize the declaration of a "state of health emergency". This marks a new turning point.
The proposed text therefore allows the government to trigger this provision on all or part of the metropolitan territory and overseas "in the event of a health disaster, especially an epidemic involving by its nature and severity, the health of the population" . If the text is inspired by that existing on the state of emergency of April 3, 1955 "the parallel stops there", underlines the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe. "We are circumscribing it within the framework of an epidemic," sums up a member of the government.
The bill stipulates that this state of health emergency "gives power to the Prime Minister to take by decree taken on the report of the Minister of Health, general measures limiting the freedom to come and go, the freedom to undertake and freedom of assembly and making it possible to requisition all goods and services necessary in order to fight against the health catastrophe ”. But also "power to the Minister of Health to prescribe by reasoned order all other general measures and individual measures to combat the disaster".
Objective, as Edouard Philippe reminded us: to give "clear and solid legal bases" to urgent measures to fight against the Covid-19 epidemic. And in the event of future disasters of the same type. Until now, no law has provided for such a situation. It must be said, notes a minister, that "since the Spanish flu crisis, there has been no health crisis of this magnitude".
"Do not create unfortunate jurisprudence"
The question was not absent from the minds at the top of the state. It was imposed as soon as it appeared inevitable to take containment measures. Until now, for lack of a specific framework, the measures have been implemented by order of the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
The executive did not want to use the state of emergency in the context of the epidemic. "The tool did not seem relevant to us, including in the field of the functioning of democratic institutions, because we are not within the strict framework of the use of the state of emergency", explains a minister anxious to "do not create unfortunate jurisprudence ”.
The bill also provides for the immediate meeting of "a committee of scientists". “Its president is appointed by decree of the President of the Republic. It includes two qualified personalities, respectively appointed by the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate, and qualified personalities appointed by decree ”, states the text. Not trivial, while the government is trying to maintain national unity.
Political Newsletter
Every day, political news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
The bill remains to be examined in the Senate and in the Assembly, where deputy Marie Guévenoux has been appointed rapporteur, when Stanislas Guerini will represent the LREM group. The Council of Ministers will then have to meet again to officially declare a "state of health emergency". It will be for a period of 12 days… renewable beyond by the parliament.