The gendarmes will now have to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to exercise their function.
The gendarmes assigned in the field or in contact with the public must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by September 15, while the police favor for the time being “vaccination incentive“, according to internal documents consulted Wednesday by AFP.
The gendarmes concerned by the vaccination obligation are “military personnel, active and reserve, in public security, road safety, law enforcement, judicial police and reception missions or performing services in contact with the public or people outside the Gendarmerie“, lists a note from the Directorate General of National Gendarmerie (DGGN), dated Tuesday.
Read also: Covid: Switzerland plans to no longer “protect” the unvaccinated
“Incitement to vaccination” for police officers
Among the police officers, who do not have military status, the heads of service are invited to “continue to encourage vaccination“agents placed under their authority, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the prefects by the Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, Jean-Benoît Albertini.
This incitement to vaccination was recalled by the Minister of the Interior to the police unions meeting Monday by audio conference, according to his entourage. Gérald Darmanin confirmed to them that the vaccination obligation was not planned at this stage, but that this could evolve, we added from the same source.
“This announcement is linked to the very high rate of vaccination in the ranks of the National Police, higher than the national average“, the Unsa-Police union reacted in a statement.
The vaccination obligation, announced on July 12 by President Emmanuel Macron to counter the strong resumption of the Covid-19 epidemic, concerns nursing and non-nursing staff in hospitals and retirement homes, professionals and volunteers working with the elderly. , including at home, as well as firefighters or paramedics.