A network of jurists and magistrates denounced Friday a trompe-l'oeil exit from the state of health emergency, by noting that the new government bill maintained important restrictive measures, " useless " and carrying a risk of " sanitary authoritarianism ".
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The government announced on Wednesday that the state of health emergency introduced at the end of March would end on July 10, but would be followed by a transitional period of four months during which restrictions would remain possible. The Scientific Council approved this plan in view of the slowdown of the epidemic, which left more than 29,300 dead in France.
The " network for monitoring the state of health emergency ", made up of academics, magistrates and associations, estimated during a press conference that the new bill maintained in fact a state of emergency, " derogatory "from ordinary law, although more" low intensity ".
"Super-authorities"
For Stéphanie Henette-Vauchez, professor of law in Nanterre, this text confirms " administrative super-police authorities with exorbitant powers " on " the regulation of the movement of people ", the " functioning of establishments in public care " and " especially the possible ban on gatherings ”. Stéphanie Renard, specialist in health law at the University of South Brittany, believes that the maintenance of " very restrictive " measures of freedoms is " not necessary " because common law already makes it possible to cope with the epidemic risk. " The law of March 23, 2020 allows the Minister of Health to take all the necessary measures 'to ensure the lasting disappearance of the health crisis situation' , she recalled.
It considers these measures not only unnecessary but also " dangerous " because, " for the first time, scientific and health uncertainty is raised as a public policy reason to justify extremely severe restrictions on freedoms ". " If we make 'perhaps epidemic risk' a public order disorder, we open the door to hygienism, to sanitary authoritarianism ", she warned.
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