Health card: Malls fear ‘huge trouble’

After the government announcements, some frowned in front of the television sets. In the ranks of the disaffected: representatives of shopping centers. They denounced, on Monday evening, b“huge complex” Due to government announcements about the health card, which may or may not be required depending on the presence of essential stores nearby.

“This is a big mess.”, launched Gontran Thüring, General Delegate of the National Council of Shopping Centers (CNCC). “The government was very quick in this story. We ended up in a very complicated situation which is not good for the French nor the economy”, was a reaction.

On Sunday, the executive proposed limiting the obligation to provide a health permit for malls over 20,000 square metres, from the beginning of August. And the government announced, with the voice of its spokesman, Gabriel Attal, on Monday evening, that it wanted to maintain this commitment, taking into account the opinion of the State Council, which stipulated the need to ensure access to basic necessities.

In its opinion issued on Monday, the highest administrative court considers that presenting a health card in shopping centers is “You are likely to be particularly interested in acquiring basic necessities, particularly food.” However, the court sees it ‘Disproportionate violation of freedoms’Especially for people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and therefore must “Tested very regularlyto access these centers.

At the conclusion of the cabinet meeting on Monday evening, Gabriel Attal announced that “I decided to adapt the wording of this measure in the bill.” For the government that extends the health permit obligation.“Concretely, the article in the bill provides for the extension of the sewage permit for shopping centers whose area exceeds a threshold to be determined by decree,” Explaining this, Gabriel Attal said “Course of action” The respective centers with an area of ​​more than 20,000 square meters, about 400 buildings.

In practice, if in “At the district level, there are stores that are not in the shopping center, but allow the purchase of basic necessities, foodstuffs or medicines, then the health card can be applied in the center of this collection area,” he said. Government spokesperson. But when “access to basic necessities can only be guaranteed in a large shopping mall, there will be no use of a health card in that mall”, Gabriel Attal added. Regarding the most accurate assessment of what is a “Blessing of Life” “We will do it jointly with governors and local elected officials.”, he completed.

On the part of the people involved, they criticize a device that is difficult to set up. “The mechanism proposed by the government does not seem to respond to the opinion of the State Council and turns out to be complicated, with the analysis of ‘basins of life’ we don’t really see how it will be done,” Jacques Cresel, General Delegate of the Trade Federation, regrets. He said to himself “I was very surprised by this announcement, as the State Council mentioned many attacks on freedoms.”

“The governors themselves will explain it, there is no doubt that we will make different and even contradictory decisions according to the departments,” Gontran Thüring fears. “The real problem is that today it does not give a view to the actors in the field, because it is all up to the discretion of the local governors,” Remarks by Johann Petitou, General Manager of Du Trade Alliance.

He hopes the government will provide a clear reading network for rulers to reduce the risk of inequality between different regions. However, there seems to be one point that reassures professionals in this sector: “Gabriel Attal said on Monday that the health passport will not be checked at every store in the mall.”, highlighted by Johann Pettiu.