Headlines: Coronavirus, the world is worried

Audio 06:17

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

Publicity

" Is the coronavirus epidemic about to turn into a pandemic ?" , wonders Liberation . After a short respite last week due to the announcement of a drop in contamination in China - but can we trust the official figures? -, panic, notes the newspaper, has returned this weekend to many countries. While South Korea proclaimed a state of maximum alert, that Iran announced its eighth death pushing all neighboring countries to close its borders, that Israel prohibited its territory to flights from South Korea and Japan , Italy announced three deaths from the coronavirus and became the first country in Europe to put entire cities under cover. "

Indeed, adds Le Journal de la Haute-Marne , “ the coronavirus is inexorably continuing to grow. In Asia, countries like South Korea already have hundreds of infected people. Europe was previously relatively unscathed, with isolated cases. But in recent days the virus has made a dramatic impact in northern Italy: three dead and more than 150 people infected. (…) At the international level, the WHO blows hot and cold, which is not reassuring. One can understand his hesitations. Admitting in a few days or weeks that the pandemic has been reached could cause a global psychosis. "

Borders ? An illusion…

“ A catastrophic film scenario takes shape before our eyes, sighs La Charente Libre , and none of the scientists consulted dares to say where and when the coronavirus epidemic will stop. "

And “ in Paris Doctor Véran, recent Minister of Health, poses the diagnosis without detour , points La Nouvelle République. Why hide the truth? We will have a very likely coronavirus outbreak too. (…) Borders are an illusion today we are told again. "

Sud-Ouest tempers: “ in well-structured states in terms of health as we know them in Europe, the threat must be put into perspective and we must not give in to psychosis. But there is concern to be made for fragile countries , reports Southwest, whose health systems cannot effectively resist the sneaky spread of Covid-19. With the key, a ricochet effect everywhere else. "

Africa in danger

We think in particular of Africa and we come back to Liberation, which questioned Professor Pierre-Marie Girard, director of international affairs at the Pasteur Institute in the capital and at the head of the International Network of Pasteur Institutes, including 10 are located in Africa. " Today ," he says, " no one understands why the epidemic has not yet developed on the African continent. (…) A simple observation : in Africa, there are more than a million Chinese nationals who go back and forth in their country, and there was, in addition, a strong movement around the Chinese New Year. Everything contributes to the virus circulating. Moreover, recent modeling shows that Egypt, Algeria and South Africa are the most likely gateways for coronavirus on the African continent. These three countries are also among the best equipped on the continent to quickly detect and deal with new cases. In other African countries, the risk of importation is lower, but, warns Professor Pierre-Marie Girard, health deficiencies can cause fear of rapid distribution. "

Xi Jinping : the fall?

Beyond the risk of a pandemic, the coronavirus is also in the process of swaying the Chinese political system ... This is what Le Figaro underlines: " the pact binding the people to Chinese power, according to which the authoritarian regime is tolerated as long as 'it guarantees prosperity and security, this pact has been shaken , says Le Figaro . Anger roars as the Chinese see their single party return to its most basic reflexes: hiding the truth, rigid, incapable of stemming the crisis and, on the contrary, contributing to making it worse. Faithful to his strategy according to which one should not tolerate the slightest crack, the Chinese president gave a new turn of screw to the repression to silence the discordant voices and pushed the propaganda to the edge of the runaway. His obsession was always to become the Chinese Mikhail Gorbachev, gravedigger of communism in Asia ... Gorbachev confided that it was Chernobyl which brought down the USSR. For Xi Jinping , concludes Le Figaro, the challenge now consists in keeping the people under pressure by avoiding the explosion, so that the coronavirus does not become its nuclear disaster. "

The Fillon couple in court

Also on the front page, " the hour of truth " for François Fillon. It is the great title of the Parisian .

“ Account time has now come for the former Prime Minister whose trial, which is also that of his wife and his deputy Marc Joulaud, opens today in Paris. François Fillon and Marc Joulaud are notably prosecuted for "embezzlement of public funds" and Penelope Fillon for complicity and concealment of this crime. The defendants face a sentence of ten years in prison and a € 150,000 fine. "

Parisian comment : "It is the honor of a man and the place he will keep in contemporary political history that will be at the heart of the debates. François Fillon will try to demonstrate that he was only an old world politician who, having embarked on his whole family in their quest for power, gave himself the right to cheat a little to ensure the well-being of his. The prosecution will want to prove that the former prime minister behaved like a thug multiplying tricks to loot the coffers of the state. Justice will decide. "

" Hello there they are again ," exclaims Le Midi Libre . Three years after a presidential election with twists and turns, the Fillon couple resurfaces. (…) Three weeks before the first round of the municipal elections, their high-profile trial could not have come at a worse time. (…) The great unpacking before the judges promises to be painful. And detrimental in terms of votes for Les Républicains. (…) This trial could quickly turn into political settling of scores. To a small anthology of the habits and customs of the old world. "

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