Covid has shattered France’s commitment to liberty

It is a peculiarity of how France has responded to the Covid pandemic that the unvaccinated, or those who have had only two jabs, are regarded as a greater threat to national security than Islamic extremists.

The Covid passport, which came into effect last week, won overwhelming backing in parliament and in the senate, despite the reservations expressed by the Council of State in December. They said the passport would restrict the unvaccinated’s ‘liberty to come and go’.

Six years ago the Council articulated similar concerns when the then-president, François Hollande, proposed a law that would strip dual nationals of their French citizenship for those convicted of terrorist offences. France was reeling from the Isis-inspired attack on Paris that left 130 dead, but the left still opposed a law they regarded as antithetical to the Republic’s cherished principles of liberté, égalité, and fraternité.

The Guardian reported that human rights organisations were opposed to the move because it ‘would be unconstitutional in creating two different classes of French citizenship, in contravention of the constitution’s founding principle of equality.