No vax, no vote? Macron’s vaccine passport plan sparks fury

Will it be necessary to produce a passe sanitaire (vaccination passport) to be allowed to vote in France? With 221 days until the first round of the next presidential election, the mere rumour of such a sinister measure is provoking near hysteria.

‘Fake news’ shrieked the media aligned with president Emmanuel Macron (frankly, most of it) tonight. Perhaps. It’s true that the government’s vaccination passport law currently being rushed through the National Assembly does not specifically mandate proof of vaccination to vote.

But neither does it specifically exclude it. And with Macron’s draconian new law demanding that those without such passports be excluded from restaurants, trains, workplaces and art galleries, the rumour mill has shifted into high gear. It will even be illegal to enter a hospital without such a pass, except in emergencies.

More than 175 demonstrations against the passe sanitaire are scheduled this weekend, uniting both the left and right and reanimating the gilets jaunes movement that became largely quiescent during the Covid crisis.