Responsibility of decision-makers: the Assembly votes on a clarification of the legislation, the opposition gets annoyed

At a time when some mayors fear being implicated in the event of transmission of the coronavirus in schools, the Assembly voted Thursday evening in favor of clarifying the legislation on the criminal responsibility of public and private decision-makers, but deleted a broader arrangement wanted by the Senate.

Read also: Should the civil and criminal liability of mayors be reduced in the event of contamination in schools?

As expected, the debate was long and bitter at the Palais Bourbon, the opposition like the majority blaming each other for trying to install "impunity" for decision-makers. Within the framework of the bill extending the state of health emergency, the deputies voted so that the judge takes into account "in the event of a health disaster, the state of scientific knowledge at the time of the facts". According to the Keeper of the Seals Nicole Belloubet and the deputies of the majority, this is only a clarification which corresponds to current case law, since the judge "always assesses the situation in concreto, on a case by case basis".

In the opposition, several deputies on the right as on the left judged this modification without interest and asked to stick to the current legislation, the Fauchon law of 2000. Others more offensive like LR Raphaël Schellenberger or the sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan accused the majority of organizing an "amnesty" of the government, a "maneuver" to "relinquish responsibility" in its management of the pandemic and to avoid possible procedures. "We don't want an amnesty law in any way for anyone, it has nothing to do with it." I want to be involved in politics, but there are limits, ” retorted Nicole Belloubet in the hemicycle.

"I think it's a mistake to leave that in the text because it will make you screw up a jaja (bad wine in slang, probably to speak of a mess here, editor's note) incredible, when it seems that it doesn’t 'brings nothing' , reacted the communist André Chassaigne. This heated debate started with a vote at the start of the week in the Senate, with a right-wing majority. The senators, invoking the concerns of local elected officials, had spoken out so that "no one can" see their criminal responsibility engaged "for contaminations by the coronavirus during the state of health emergency, except in case of deliberate intention , "Recklessness" or "negligence". The government opposed it, in particular Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, hostile to any “mitigation of the responsibility” of the decision-makers and who had recalled that the responsibility for the reopening of schools rested with the State and not with the mayors. The debate must now continue in joint joint committee, a priori Saturday morning, between deputies and senators very opposed on this subject.