Paris (AFP)
The president of the group The Republicans in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, deemed Saturday "chaotic" the management of the epidemic of coronavirus by the government, calling on him to "stop being late" and "be in the anticipation".
"On the one hand we want to be one, on the other there is a chaotic management" of the government, said Bruno Retailleau on Europe 1, denouncing the shortages of equipment.
"Today is the masks, tomorrow the respirators, the day after tomorrow the tests to get out of containment, because we will have to test massively," he said. According to him, "we must stop being late" and "be in anticipation".
"National unity is not silence. It is the absence of answers, or wrong answers, that divide," argued the senator from Vendée.
He took the example of the closing of the markets, which for him should be taken on a case-by-case basis in consultation with local elected officials, in order to sometimes avoid "concentration in supermarkets".
As part of measures specifying containment taken Tuesday, markets are now generally prohibited. The prefects may, however, authorize certain food markets that meet "the population's need for supplies" if they accommodate fewer than 100 people simultaneously.
According to Mr. Retailleau, "the problem is that the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister make declarations which are out of step with the terrain. There needs to be a form of decentralization".
Edouard Philippe announced that he would give Saturday "a full update on the situation of the country facing this epidemic" during a joint press briefing with the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
© 2020 AFP