Holiday hell as Brits face being banned from French bars & attractions by Macron’s tough new vaccine passport scheme
THOUSANDS of Brits face holiday hell in France as Emmanuel Macron's vaccine passport scheme comes into effect.
The programme effectively bars unvaccinated people from bars and other public areas, prompting a backlash from many already in the country.
Vaccinated people need to prove they're double-jabbed for everything in France - from scaling the Eiffel Tower to grabbing a glass of wine on an outdoor terrace.
Brits will have to load a digital QR code handed out by the NHS onto the French coronavirus app in order to prove their vaccine status.
But there have been reports of holidaymakers failing to get the codes recognised at venues over the last week, or struggling to upload them to the app.
Authorities have claimed the system will work from today, and French ambassador Catherine Colonna said holidaymakers experiencing issues with the new system should contact the French consulate in the UK, despite not answering the phone when media outlets called.
Now French businesses are worried the move will kill café culture this summer - only weeks after the country emerged from a brutal lockdown.
A survey by French trade magazine L'echommerces found that 40 per cent of bar and restaurant owners will simply ignore the new rule.
Fines for customers who refuse to show a "health pass" start at £115 (€135) and rise to as much as £3,000 (€3,750) or even a six-month prison term for repeat offenders.
Meanwhile, businesses can be slapped with a £1,300 fine (€1,500) or temporary closure for failing to check customers' vaccine passports.
This rises to £7,600 (€9,000) and a year in prison for those caught breaking the rules more than three times.
This comes more than a week after Paris police used tear gas to disperse large anti-vaxx crowds who are protesting against the government's jab passport scheme.
Some 3,000 riot police clashed with thousands of protesters in French capital for a third weekend in row over proposals to introduce a vaccine pass.
Police also used water cannons to ward off thousands of protestors at the Champs-Elysees and the Place de la Bastille.
More than 160,000 people marched in Paris and other major cities in demonstrations organised by so-called Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests anti-government movement.
Most read in News
"Some of the marches are illegal, and they are being joined by anarchist groups who are not directly linked to the protest," said one officer at the scene.
People are protesting against a bill recently passed by French lawmakers that makes it mandatory to have a Covid vaccination passport to enter restaurants and public spaces.
Under the publicly-backed rules, healthcare workers will have until mid-September to prove they're either double-jabbed, have already had Covid-19, or provide a negative test result.
