France Considers Mandatory Covid Vaccine for International Travelers in New Bill

The perpetuation of certain measures of the state of health emergency in common law in this bill has provoked reactions. In its Article 3131-9, in the 6th paragraph, the bill provides that "the Prime Minister may, where appropriate [...] subordinate the movement of persons, their access to means of transport or to certain places, as well as the exercise of certain activities, to the presentation of the results of a screening test establishing that the person is not infected or contaminated, to the follow-up of a preventive treatment, including the administration of a vaccine, or a curative treatment".

"Slyly, this text envisages not making vaccination compulsory, but preventing any social life for those who would not be. (...) There can be no second-class citizenship for unvaccinated individuals," reacted on Twitter the president of the RN Marine Le Pen. "This is a total and scandalous undermining of vaccine freedom," denounced for his part the president of Debout la France, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.

Faced with the controversy, the entourage of the French Prime Minister specifies that the purpose of the text is not to prohibit access to the restaurant or the cinema to unvaccinated people, reports BFMTV. "But it could for example allow a vaccination to substitute for the obligation of a negative PCR test to enter a French territory". If the text is adopted, the vaccination certificate will be imposed on travelers arriving in France.

In France, the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus will start on Sunday, December 27, 2020.