France under cover. The country has put in place the "strictest containment measures in Europe", since Tuesday noon, insisted Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, in order to stem the Covid-19 epidemic.
"Stay at home, you can help us, this is how you will be allies of our war", declared the Minister of the Interior after a Council of Ministers devoted to the implementation of measures containment announced the day before by Emmanuel Macron.
No family meals or drinks with friends
“The family meal, dinners with friends, the football match with a few friends, the reunion for a game of cards. (…) It is not only not recommended, it is prohibited, ”he said. All "collective activities are prohibited," said Christophe Castaner. "Behind each handshake, each kiss, there are more deaths," he insisted, while the official death toll in France reached 148 dead and 6,633 cases, according to the latest assessment Monday evening.
Some 100,000 police and gendarmes are being deployed on the national territory "to control movements," he continued; for the sake of "pedagogy" but also of "coercion", said government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye, in the wake of the Minister of the Interior.
The barricaded European Union
Sibeth Ndiaye, who also said she could "not guarantee" that the confinement "will last only fifteen days", but that the government does not envisage "at this stage" a curfew.
Following the recommendations of the European Commission and its President Ursula von der Leyen, "entry of foreign nationals to the European Union, the Schengen area and the United Kingdom is prohibited within the European area". "For nationals of third countries, the borders will be closed," explained Christophe Castaner, except those "with a residence permit in force".
The transport of goods is not affected. "There is no need to fear for the supply of food and medical supplies," said the minister. At the Council of Ministers on Tuesday morning, only nine ministers were physically present, the others participating by videoconference. Similarly, the report to the press was unprecedented: Christophe Castaner and Sibeth Ndiaye spoke only to one journalist, who relayed questions from his colleagues sent by courier.
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- Christophe Castaner