The government is preparing to end the state of health emergency. The services of Edouard Philippe indicate this Tuesday evening that the government will present tomorrow in the Council of Ministers a bill coming to ratify the end of the emergency regime on July 10, "given the development at this positive stage health situation ”.
The government thus seems to have heard the requests of the defenders of liberties who called for not to renew once again the device which entered into force on March 24th. On June 3, the Human Rights League relayed a petition on social networks calling not to go beyond the deadline currently provided for in the texts, to July 10.
The fact remains that the executive does not intend to deprive itself of all the levers of action implemented in the past three months. If the bill presented tomorrow will not extend the state of emergency, it will leave at the disposal of the Prime Minister "part of his tools" and for a period limited to four months. Matignon services cite three levers:
- The possibility of regulating or prohibiting the movement of people and vehicles and of regulating access to means of transport and the conditions of their use (obligation to wear a mask);
- The possibility of ordering the temporary closure and of regulating the opening, including the conditions of access and presence, of one or more categories of establishments open to the public as well as meeting places with a maximum gauge, in guaranteeing people's access to essential goods and services;
- The possibility of limiting or prohibiting gatherings on the public highway as well as meetings of any kind.
This exit from the state of health emergency would no longer authorize the implementation of strict confinement, which would require a new decree in the Council of Ministers.
This decision comes at a time when the French have been demonstrating for over a little over a week in defiance of the rules supposed to prevail today, prohibiting gatherings of more than ten people in public space. A situation which pushed this Tuesday the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner to brandish the principle of the tolerance, in the name of an “emotion” which would exceed the legal framework in force.
