Headlines: increasing anxiety and discontent among French people

Audio 4:35

By: Norbert Navarro

Publicity

In the weekly press and magazine.

According to an Ifop poll for Le Journal du Dimanche , 84% of French people say they are worried about the coronavirus epidemic. It is ten points higher than last week. And among them, 35% say they are " completely worried ".

So yes - and Le JDD points it out - " anxiety has jumped 40 points since the end of January ". Forty points more in seven weeks, the coronavirus crisis turns into a nervous breakdown ...

Even more worrying for the executive, nearly two in three French people (64%) believe that the government has " hidden certain information ".

To make matters worse, only 39% of those polled find that it " gives all the means to infrastructures and health professionals to fight against this virus ". And there, it is 15 points less than in the previous poll published on this subject by The JDD.

However, this survey indicates this Sunday that 55% of French people trust the government to " deal effectively with the coronavirus ", and 57% to " help businesses in difficulty ".

In this same Sunday Journal , Emmanuel Macron repeats it: “ It's a war. It will last (…) We don't know everything about tomorrow. We must remain united, ”urges the head of state in Le JDD.

United, yes, but confined as rarely. Several cities in France have imposed a curfew, such as Perpignan, Béziers or Nice, in the south of France. And this morning, in the newspaper Le Parisien Dimanche , the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo recommends moving towards a “ much more severe ” confinement in Paris. Fluctuat NEC mergitur…

In the coronavirus crisis, no hesitation, shut yourself up to get out! :

This is, in reverse, the formula of the weekly Le Canard Enchaîné this week. With distance and humor, the irreverent palmipede of the French press, in fact, proclaims: " To get out of it, you have to shut up "!

It must be said that Le Canard Enchaîné has seen others. More than a century ago, in 1918, when the Spanish flu was raging, Le Canard had to take roundabout ways to criticize the government which had then taken no action. Disinfection or containment.

Criticize the government, the press is well in its role by carrying the pen in the wound, but it is perhaps not yet the moment:

This is what L'Express emphasizes , when this weekly warns that " the search for responsibilities will come later, but the highest authorities of the state already know that one day or another they will have to assume their choices ".

With this remark, L'Express intends to refer to the procrastination of the executive before the containment measures are taken, which this newspaper approves without reservation. " To stop this infernal machine, so that the epidemic stops its mad rush, there is only one thing to do: block the virus, prevent it from continuing to be transmitted. Let’s stay at home ”, enjoins this magazine.

But then, why many, too many were the French who had trouble understanding this health imperative? Why was the government forced to increase sanctions against recalcitrant people? Because " the human mind has trouble understanding what exponential growth means," says L'Express. For a long time, nothing significant happened. The danger seems distant, almost unreal. And then, all of a sudden, the curve takes off at a speed and with an incredible scale. The wave is there, and it overwhelms everything. This is exactly the turning point experienced by France since last week ", summarizes this weekly.

As L'Express still puts it , " we are now nothing more than that: we are a curve (...) Even more than" forming a nation ", as (said Emmanuel Macron), we must now curve, and preferably by gentle slope "!

In fact, everything can go very quickly: barely a month ago, the first death of the coronavirus in Europe was reported in Italy… where the - provisional - death toll has already exceeded that of China! :

In Italy, " in hospitals, in churches, corpses pile up because there are no longer enough coffins, reports L'Obs. A church in Bergamo has been transformed into a mortuary, with forty bodies waiting to be cremated. In the village of Zogno (8,000 inhabitants), faced with the influx of deceased people, the parish priest Don Giorgio was ringing the bells continuously, which ended up anxious the inhabitants. He decided to ring them only once a day, regardless of the number of victims, reports this weekly again . The funeral takes place without a funeral oration or mass. We must act quickly and avoid contagion, ”explains L'Obs . As the bell tolls…

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