They want the executive to "stop procrastinating". Five associations of caregivers, patients and lawyers have asked the Council of State to "force" the government to requisition the factories making it possible to manufacture the masks, tests and drugs necessary for the fight against the epidemic of coronavirus. This appeal for "interim measures useful" before the highest administrative court was filed Monday by the Inter-Emergency and Inter-Hospital, the National Nursing Coordination (CNI), Act-Up Paris and the Association for the Defense of Constitutional Freedoms (Adelico).
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Their request, of which AFP obtained a copy Tuesday, aims to "put an end to the hesitations of the executive" and "to force the Prime Minister to immediately take the regulatory measures of requisition. These are made possible by law promulgated last week, but judges are not bound by a deadline to decide.
"There is a war economy to set up"
The associations target in particular the "production factories necessary" to provide professionals with various equipment (FFP2 masks, glasses, respirators, etc.), but also "surgical masks for patients and the general population". But the request also relates to the supply of "massive screening means" and the authorization of "all veterinary and medical biology laboratories to carry out the tests". The same is true of "curative or palliative therapies", the emerging shortage of which "deprives some people of their chances of survival and calls into question for others the right to die with dignity".
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According to the associations, "these requisition measures are essential to envisage the end of administrative confinement" in force since March 17 and extended until April 15 at least. At the microphone of Europe 1, Professor André Grimaldi of the Inter-Hôpitaux collective warns of the urgency of such a decision. "We cannot say that we are in a health war and not make war economy decisions," he said. According to him, the priority of the economy must consist in "protecting the caregivers and all the personnel who are at risk, such as transporters, cashiers, letter carriers, firefighters and the police. This must be the absolute priority. There is a war economy to be set up, and we must not only appeal to the good will of the industrialists ".
The automotive industry ready to mobilize
Faced with the emergency, part of the automotive industry will mobilize. So, while its Anthony factory, in Hauts-de-Seine, is already at work 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, Air Liquide, the only manufacturer of respirators in France, must increase its production from 500 devices in March at 1,500 from April, then 2,000 in May. To achieve this, the group is forging partnerships with the car manufacturer PSA but also with the equipment supplier Valéo.