Parliament will debate the government’s new pandemic restriction legislation on Thursday morning, but one article will be missing from Bill 7728. That would have required civil servants to report infractions of the new laws, such as a breach of the rule of 2 or of the proposed 9pm curfew, to the state prosecutor, or face disciplinary action.

But the CGFP civil servants’ union and the largest opposition party, the CSV, were disdainful of the proposed legislation. The Syprolux transport workers’ union even compared the proposed grassing up law with legislations introduced in the Nazi era.

The head of the Consultative Commission on Human Rights wrote in a report on 23 December that the CHRC was concerned about the appropriateness and proportionality of the measure, “especially since, in an emergency, these officers may be subject to disciplinary sanctions.”

The imposition of an earlier, 9pm, curfew, has also come under fire from the parliamentary health committee, and even the Council of State said it would have no problem if that article in the new law was struck off the legislation book. But although it also questioned the decision to limit outdoor sports to two people when four people can meet outdoors in social circumstances, the Council has not submitted any formal opposition to the draft law.

The debate in the Chamber of Deputies is due to start at 11am on Thursday morning.

This article has been translated and edited from the original French published by Paperjam