In the obstacle course to the deconfinement of May 11, Emmanuel Macron goes Tuesday to a school in Yvelines to try to address the concerns of the mayors in charge of preparing this perilous return to school.
And there are many, according to these elected officials, particularly in the Paris region where most of them refuse to reopen schools from next week. Some 329 mayors of Ile-de-France, including PS mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, wrote Sunday to President Macron asking him to postpone the reopening of schools to a later date, denouncing a deconfinement "forced march".
But for Emmanuel Macron, it is an "essential step" in order to restart the country, after the confinement of millions of French for nearly two months. "The moment is critical, we cannot remain confined," launched his side Prime Minister Edouard Philippe before the Senate, where he was not heard. The upper house refused Monday to validate the government's deconfinement plan by 89 votes to 81 and 174 abstentions, without major consequence however on its implementation. "The confinement was justified by the urgency, but its social and economic cost is colossal," he said.
School dropout, "time bomb"
Edouard Philippe also described the closure of schools as "a disaster for the most vulnerable of children and adolescents", dropping out of school, he said, "probably a time bomb". Emmanuel Macron will try to reassure the fears of elected officials and teachers in Poissy by going to Pierre Ronsard elementary school with the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer.
A very strict health protocol must regulate the reopening of schools: repeated hand washing, offices spaced at least one meter, wearing a mandatory mask or recommended depending on the circumstances ... A real headache for the municipalities responsible for preparing for the start of the new school year at high risk.
And if in Marseille, everything is ready in schools, according to its mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin, it is far from being the case in Guadeloupe where there also the elected officials voted on Sunday a motion to postpone the start of the school year until September.
The question of the criminal responsibility of elected officials
Elected officials are also worried about their criminal responsibility if the exit from containment were to go wrong. "We cannot deconfigure without protecting the exercise of the responsibilities which will be taken by many French people and who exceed them", judged the senator LR Philippe Bas, before the vote Sunday evening in the Senate of a text aiming to better protect them . The system adopted, against the advice of the government, provides that during the state of health emergency "no one can have criminal responsibility engaged" for contamination by the coronavirus, except in the case of deliberate intention, recklessness or negligence.
In general, the senators who began examining Monday the bill extending the state of health emergency, are firmly determined to rewrite it to "include essential guarantees".
- Confinement
- Jean-Michel Blanquer
- Emmanuel Macron
- school
- Coronavirus
- Society