The ‘corona law’ with which the cabinet can impose crisis measures will almost certainly cease to exist. In the Senate, which will debate the law again next week, there is currently insufficient support to extend this law again, according to a tour. That presents Minister Ernst Kuipers (Public Health, D66) with a problem: without the law, he cannot simply announce corona measures in the event of a resurgence of the virus.
The coalition parties have 32 seats in the 75-seat senate and therefore need the support of at least 6 opposition senators. But the parties that still supported the previous extension, including GroenLinks (8 seats) and the PvdA (6 seats), say they will not do so again. This means that a majority is out of sight, because almost all other groups have previously voted against an extension.
The corona law, which came into effect in December 2020, is the legal basis for all corona measures that have been taken since then. The law contains the means that the cabinet has at its disposal, such as a mouth mask obligation, mandatory distance or closing sectors. There are currently no corona measures in force, but the cabinet could reintroduce them much faster with the law than without.
The fifth extension is now before the Senate. Kuipers has already asked the House of Representatives for a sixth extension as of 1 June. The biggest objection is that the temporary law is constantly being extended, while the cabinet promised that it would be in force for the shortest possible time. Now that the pandemic has entered a less disruptive phase, an extension is more difficult to justify, the Council of State previously ruled.
Extension of the law was only supported in the House of Representatives last month by the four coalition parties. To meet the opposition’s objections, Kuipers deleted a number of measures, such as the controversial corona ticket. He also announced last week that he would work more quickly on amending the existing Public Health Act, so that the virus measures can be incorporated into permanent legislation. This has been the wish of the House of Representatives and the Senate for some time now. Kuipers promises to send parliament that amendment this summer. The minister hopes that the Houses will want to extend the temporary corona law until then.
Also read: Kuipers threatens to become a paralyzed corona minister
Emergency Ordinances
There is little enthusiasm for this in the Senate. Senator Margreet de Boer (GroenLinks): „With temporary legislation, the first question is always: is the law still necessary? We don’t see that need at the moment.” Jeroen Recourt (PvdA) believes that the senate should draw a line: “If the necessity for the government to intervene so deeply in the freedom of citizens disappears, such a law must also be removed.”
GroenLinks and PvdA are not impressed by Kuipers’ proposal to present an amendment to the Public Health Act this summer. “We have been asking for this for a year and a half, it is all very late,” says De Boer. Recourt doubts that the ministry can present the law in time and emphasizes that the treatment could last well after the summer. “Then we would always have to extend the temporary law. That is undesirable.”
Without the corona law, Kuipers could fall back on emergency regulations for measures, as happened in the first wave. Margreet de Boer emphasizes that in the event of an emergency, for example a new disease-producing variant, parliament is really prepared to act quickly: “Kuipers always says: then you have nothing left. But if the need arises this autumn, we can deal with emergency or emergency legislation really quickly.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 13, 2022
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