Covid-19: Paris city hall requests full confinement for three weeks

Passers-by on the avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris, February 24, 2021. AP - Michel Euler

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Twenty departments under "enhanced surveillance": the government is preparing for all options while the health situation is deteriorating in part of the country.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced this Thursday evening that decisions would be taken on March 6.

Until then, consultation with local elected officials will continue.

But Paris has already positioned itself.

The city hall of the capital is asking for full confinement for three weeks.

The government is trapped in its case-by-case strategy.

Publicity

Read more

After Nice and

Dunkirk

, the government thought it had finally found the right score to get in tune with local elected officials: involve them to avoid any dispute.

It was without counting on the mayor of Paris.

Anne Hidalgo draws a shock proposal: confinement of the capital for three weeks. 

The government must act faster, stronger, tackled his first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire on BFM.

“ 

Courageous decisions must be taken, including to be sure to obtain results,

” he said.

This in-between without result is unsatisfactory and it carries great danger for the future.

We cannot put in months of effort and in the end have confinement anyway.

If it is necessary to have containment, it must be done now and reopen in a month.

The wait-and-see attitude of half-measures weighs on morale, it

ultimately

weighs

heavily on the economy. 

"

In Matignon, the entourage of Jean Castex temporizes: " 

We await the consultation with the prefect and the elected officials

 ", slips an adviser to the Prime Minister, not fooled by the political battle in the background.

As the presidential election approaches,

Anne Hidalgo

hides her ambition to wear the colors of the left in 2022.

To read also: Covid: 20 departments in "reinforced surveillance", possible additional measures on March 6

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • France

  • Coronavirus

  • Confinement