A return of high symbolic value to the National Assembly. After the opposition slap in the face of the government at the beginning of July on the new Covid-19 bill, the deputies should finally vote this Monday afternoon on a new version of the text that is favored by the executive. The government can thank the Senate for smoothing things over.

In the menu of this text, which has been extensively reviewed by the Upper House, we now find a mandatory PCR test at the borders in the event of a dangerous variant and the possibility of reintegrating unvaccinated caregivers as soon as there are no more. “medical reason” for asking for mandatory vaccination.

Deputies happy with government failure

Therefore, the executive can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Although Elisabeth Borne had made this first legislation of the new National Assembly an example of her new method, it failed in mid-July.

The opposition, more numerous than the presidential coalition in session, had rejected the principle of returning the health pass to the borders and between the metropolis and Overseas and Corsica. “A first defeat for Macronie,” then greeted Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group in the National Assembly. The LR had for their part denounced “an error of method” while the RN deputy Sébastien Chenu had seen there “the first day of the rest of this new mandate”.

A Senate that says “no” to the return of the health pass but yes to the test

The Prime Minister then called the Senate, which then seized the bill, to the “spirit of responsibility.” However, the calculation seemed optimistic when Gérard Larcher, its president, had constantly proclaimed his “independence” in recent weeks.

If the principle of border control had, from the beginning, the favors of the senators, a section of the blocked text: that of the possible reinsertion of the nursing staff despite the fact that François Braun, the Minister of Health, refused to give any step in that direction.

Mobilize the majority deputies

The senators, therefore, put water in the wine in the version of the deputies by not inserting the return of the health pass at the borders, but sacralizing the principle of a test. A gesture is also made towards unvaccinated caregivers by opening their possible return to work in the event of a very clear improvement on the health front.

After this vote of the senators, the text was sent to a joint joint commission, a body between the two chambers that seeks to allow a consensus between the Assembly and the Senate. Composed mainly of elected LR and Renaissance, the CMP has agreed to the terms adopted by the upper house.

It is now up to the Assembly to adopt this version this Monday afternoon and to the presidential majority to manage to mobilize its troops, already exhausted after a few weeks of legislature and two campaigns.