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Sign in the French city of Annecy: Masks are compulsory in downtown France
Photo: Luc Nobout / imago images / IP3press
French President Emmanuel Macron recently said in an interview that he had "a great desire to annoy the unvaccinated", triggering violent reactions in the country.
Now his government's plan to tighten the corona measures has cleared an important hurdle.
After heated debates, the French National Assembly approved the introduction of drastic restrictions on the unvaccinated.
The regulations provide that unvaccinated people will no longer have access to places such as restaurants, cinemas or long-distance trains.
Early on Thursday morning, the National Assembly adopted the bill at first reading.
Now the Senate has to deal with the text.
The National Assembly had previously interrupted the deliberations twice, thereby endangering the government's tight schedule.
Health passport is to be converted into vaccination passport
In view of the increasing number of corona infections, the government wants to replace the so-called health passport, which has so far provided evidence of vaccinations, the current negative corona test or survived illness, with a new vaccination passport (“pass vaccinal”). A negative test should then no longer be enough to gain access to many leisure facilities. The government plans to finalize the status of those who have recovered at a later date. The rules should actually go into effect on January 15th. It is unclear whether this schedule can be adhered to in view of the delayed approval in the National Assembly.
In addition to the restrictions for unvaccinated people, the French government has planned to tighten the corona measures further. A mask requirement should apply in city centers. For cultural and sporting events, the number of spectators should be limited to 2,000 inside and 5,000 outside. The requirements for home office are also to be tightened. In addition, a ban on the consumption of beverages and food in local transport, in sports facilities and in cinemas is planned, in restaurants it is only allowed to drink and eat while seated.
The number of infections has risen sharply in France in the past few weeks.
The omicron variant is now predominant.
On Wednesday, the country peaked with more than 332,000 reported infections in one day.
Most recently, the incidence value, i.e. the number of new infections per 100,000 people within a week, was around 1908 nationwide.
asc / dpa