The upper house of the French parliament – the Senate, approved the bill to expand the scope of sanitary admission and mandatory vaccination of health personnel, but made some changes to the text, according to the electronic editions “Parisien” and “France Blois”. The text was supported by 199 senators, while 123 senators voted against. The opposition has a majority in the upper house of parliament.
Among the amendments introduced in the text is the postponement of the beginning of the expanded use of the sanitary pass from 30 August to 15 September. This will give people more time to prepare for the measure to take effect. Another change is the exclusion of minors from the measure. The sanitary pass will not apply to the terraces of restaurants and large commercial sites, according to changes introduced by the Senate.
Another change in the bill allows 16- and 17-year-olds to be vaccinated without parental consent.
The senators also linked the extension of the sanitary pass to the introduction of the sanitary state of emergency by 31 October.
On Friday, the lower house of parliament, in which President Emmanuel Macron’s party has a majority, adopted the version of the bill as proposed by the government.
Now such a conciliation parliamentary committee will consider the versions of the bill approved by the Senate and the lower house in order to develop a common position on the new measures. If there is no consensus on the issue, the lower house will hold a final vote and the bill will be adopted in the form approved by it. The government wants this to happen by the end of the day so that the measures can take effect as soon as possible.
We remind you that yesterday about 161,000 people took part in demonstrations across France against the extension of the requirements for health passes and mandatory vaccinations against COVID-19 for some professions, according to data from the Ministry of Interior.
There were about 114,000 protesters last week.
Clashes broke out between protesters and police in central Paris. Nine people have been detained, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanen said on Twitter.
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