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On Monday, the French parliament passed a law requiring visitors to all restaurants and other public places, passengers on trains and planes. health pass – a health passport showing that the person has been vaccinated against coronavirus, recently became ill, or has a negative result on a recent COVID-19 test.
The French Senate approved an amended bill on Saturday: an exception was made for minors, a health passport will not be required on the terraces of restaurants and cafes.
It is true that as of September 30, all people over the age of 12 will need a medical passport.
It was decided to implement the new rules from September instead of August as planned. The law has not yet been approved by the lower house of parliament.
Later, the government will decide by decree how to evaluate the vaccination documents of other countries.
The rules can be applied until November 15, depending on the epidemiological situation, according to the Associated Press.
15-minute photo / Discussion by E. Macron with Vilnius University students
The law also provides for mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers. President Macron and his government have said they need to protect the most vulnerable sectors of society and hospitals to avoid another quarantine as the number of infections increases.
By law, all health workers must begin vaccination before September 15; otherwise, they may be expelled.
While visiting a hospital in French Polynesia, Macron urged the nation to mobilize and asked: “What is the value of your freedom if you say you don’t want to be vaccinated but that you infect your father or mother tomorrow?”
There were protests
About 160,000 people protested in several French cities on Saturday. people. Many protesters chanted “Freedom!” And they assured that the government should not decide what to do.
Scanpix / SIPA photo / Protesters against a health passport in Paris
True, according to the Ipsos-Storia Sterna survey published in mid-August, 60% of the French support the implementation of a health passport and the mandatory vaccination of health workers.
Protests also broke out in mid-July, as soon as plans to introduce a COVID-19 passport were announced, with demonstrations taking place in 137 cities. The authorities have been accused of restricting individual rights.
“Under no circumstances does the president have the right to make decisions about my individual health,” a protester who spoke with Chrystelle told Reuters.
“I think there were fewer sworn libertarians at these demonstrations than conspiracy theorists,” Andrew Smith, professor of French politics at Chicheter University, told France 24.
According to him, comparing French vaccine advocates to the Nazi resistance movement in the 1950s is a “disturbing manipulation of history.”
“It just came to us then about the movement of opponents to vaccines in the country. The talk of crushing, collaboration and Nazism is very different from what we see in the Anglo-Saxon world, where the Nazis are, of course, often bad, but they are something more abstract, “he said.
According to a poll conducted by OpinionWay and published in May, 20 percent of French adults would reject vaccination, and 13 percent are undecided.
According to the French Academy of Medicine, to obtain herd immunity and overcome COVID-19, it is necessary to vaccinate 90%. Adults.
Imago / Scanpix photo / Protesters against a health passport in Paris
The popularity of the pseudo-documentary Hold-Up suggests that the COVID-19 misinformation has a large audience in the country. Released in November, the film has already grossed more than 2.5 million. criticism, was shared by famous people like Sophie Marceau, writes France 24.
In recent years, the QAnon conspiracy theory movement has also intensified in France, spreading disinformation not only about the coronavirus, but also that the world is ruled by pedophile Kabbalah, which can only be defeated by the presidency. of Donald Trump.
The movement has been popularized by French disinformation portals such as DéQodeurs and FranceSoir.
However, according to Smith, conspiracy theories remain on the fringes of French society. “Most people in France understand that hard work and smart policies lead to a pandemic, not conspiracy theories,” he said.
According to the Our Wolrd in Data database, 58.2% of people in France have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. population, 44.4 percent. – completely.
Political implications for Macron
The COVID-19 passport could respond politically to Macron, who is seeking reelection in next year’s presidential elections.
“When Macron announced this, many people saw it not only as a means to protect public health, but also as a message for the campaign before the next presidential election,” said Paul Smith, professor of French politics at the University of Nottingham. .
According to him, a health passport can help to recover the voices of the moderates. The latter can see Macron leading France out of the COVID-19 nightmare, and see themselves as a silent majority opposing neither the extreme left nor the extreme right.
“Politics is changing the battlefield. The traditional parties of the right and left, Republicans and Socialists, will not oppose Macron’s practical and measured approach to the pandemic,” Smith said of France 24.
“You cannot win the presidential election by 117,000 people scattered on the streets of France. Win with a practical and evidence-based policy to end the pandemic and revitalize the economy,” Smith said.
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