Introduction 

On February 14, 2024, France’s Assemblée Nationale adopted a controversial draft law “to strengthen the fight against “sectarian aberrations” or “sectarian drift” (in French dérive sectaire).

Click here to view video of National Assembly, February 14, 2024

The draft law was an initiative of the French government of Emmanuel Macron which will be presented to the Senate by the Minister of the Interior on behalf of Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne.

Author’s Translation from the French 

Presentation decree

The Prime Minister,

On the report of the Minister of the Interior and Overseas,

Having regard to Article 39 of the Constitution,

Decree:

This draft law to strengthen the fight against sectarian aberrations (dérive sectaire) [sectarian drift], deliberated in the Council of Ministers pursuant to the opinion of the Council of State, will be presented to the Senate by the Minister of the Interior and Overseas, who will be responsible for setting out the reasons and supporting the discussion, with the assistance of the Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior and Overseas, in charge of citizenship and to the Minister of the Interior and Overseas and the Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, in charge of the city.

Paris, November 15, 2023

Signed: Élisabeth BORNE

By the Prime Minister:

The Minister of the Interior and Overseas

Signed: Gérald DARMANIN

The Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior and Overseas, in charge of citizenship and to the Minister of the Interior and Overseas and the Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, in charge of the city

Signed: Sabrina AGRESTI-ROUBACHE

Parliamentary Debate on “Dérive Sectaire”,  Sectarian Drift

The draft law had first been debated on February 13.  2024

“A coalition of oppositions rejected the article [IV] on Tuesday evening [February 13], as the Senate did at the end of 2023. MPs LFI, LR and RN denounce a threat to “public freedoms” and to “whistleblowers” who criticize the pharmaceutical industry.

The following day (February 14, 2024) late into the night, following the question period,  a narrow vote was taken (116-108) repealing the vote of the previous day. There were about 40% of the 577 members of the National Assembly present when the vote was called. 

After long debates, the deputies adopted at first reading the draft law against “sectarian abominations” [dérive sectaire]  on February 14, in which they reintegrated the controversial article 4, which creates a new crime of “provocation to abstention from medical care”.(“provocation à l’abstention de soins”) 

…Article 4 of Chapter III, proposes to amend the Criminal Code to punish “provocation” on a sick person to “abandon or refrain from following medical treatment”, if this abandonment is presented as beneficial when it could lead to dangerous consequences.

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