MARSEILLE | The new turn of the screw imposed on large French cities, including Paris and Marseille, in the face of the resurgence of COVID-19 was strongly contested on Thursday, the opposition denouncing a lack of consultation while bars and restaurants, hit hard, lived “A real nightmare”.
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
To fight against a new runaway epidemic, the government on Wednesday placed Marseille and Aix, in the south-east, as well as Guadeloupe, in the West Indies, in “maximum alert zone” and decided a total closure of their bars , restaurants and any “establishment open to the public”, except those with a “strict health protocol”, such as theaters, museums or cinemas.
Eleven other metropolises, including Paris, Lyon and Nice, have been placed in a “heightened alert zone”, with bars closing at 10 pm and limiting alcohol sales.
In Marseille, the ecologist mayor (opposition) Michèle Rubirola said he was “angry”, deploring a lack of consultation. ” It is unacceptable. Why have a turn of the screw, when the numbers start to turn in the positive for us for a few days? », She lamented on France Info radio.
Restaurateurs, cafetiers and actors of the Marseille economic world have planned to meet on Friday to say “no to economic reconfinement”.
In recent days, France has recorded more than 10,000 new contaminations every 24 hours, an increase in the number of hospitalizations and people in intensive care (4,244 hospitalized COVID patients including 675 in intensive care).
In Paris, with 25% of critical care beds occupied by coronavirus cases, public hospitals have decided to postpone 20% of scheduled surgeries from next weekend.
If the situation does not improve, other metropolises could do the same, warned the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
“Hard to understand” measures
The socialist mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo estimated that the restrictions for bars and the closure of sports halls from Monday were measures “difficult to understand”, decided “without any consultation”.
Already in great financial difficulty after three months of inactivity in the spring – 15% could go out of business – cafetiers and restaurateurs of the professional organization Umih spoke of “a real nightmare”, asking for the withdrawal of a decision “Iniquitous” or full coverage of their operating losses.
“We are really at the end of the line, it is a situation of no return which will lead to very significant economic and social damage,” Roland Héguy, president of the Umih at the national level, told AFP.
Bernard Marty, president of Umih for the Aix-Marseille region, rejected the government decision as a whole, asking that “the State exercise the controls it is supposed to do and only close those who do not respect health measures. “. “I want to warn him that Marseille will experience insurrectional moments,” he warned.
“Faced with the return of COVID-19, I call on Ile-de-France residents to exercise great self-discipline. But I also ask the government to respect a real consultation with the communities on the decisions impacting bars and restaurants already very weakened ”, tweeted the president of the Paris region Valérie Pécresse (right-wing opposition).
The Association of Mayors of France (AMF) deplored that by “renouncing consultation, the government weakens confidence” and its president François Baroin, of the right-wing Les Républicains (LR, opposition), asked the prime minister Jean Castex to “receive a delegation from the AMF” to discuss the management of the crisis.
“Obviously by prohibiting people from going to restaurants, they will party at home and I do not believe that this is likely to slow down the progress”, warned the vice-president of the RN (Rassemblement National, far right), Jordan Bardella.
Opposite the chessboard, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France insoumise (radical left) criticized in a tweet a lack of government preparation: “decisions without warning, contradictory and inconsistent” in Marseille.