Macron takes off the mask and lifts the curfew: health or electioneering

Nicolas Beytout is interested in the announcement by Jean Castex of the end of the curfew and the wearing of non-public masks.

Pragmatoralism is a concentrate of pragmatism and electoralism.

It is a product that can be very useful on the political level, since it combines two sure values ​​of public life: common sense and opportunism.

The decision taken this Wednesday in the Defense Council on the curfew and the wearing of masks is a perfect example of pragmatoralism.

It is good for morale, with this return at last to a more normal life.

And she has a tangy taste of political operation.

Isn't this a bit of a trial of intent?

There was a lot of factual evidence that this decision should be taken. The number of hospitalized patients is in sharp decline, vaccination has passed the 30 million injected dose, the sun is shining, summer evenings are mild, and outside, large numbers of gatherings (impossible to control) are multiplying. In short, we are removing constraints that it had become difficult to enforce, it's pragmatic. But only two days ago, Jérôme Salomon, the Director General of Health, explained that it would be necessary to wait until the end of the month to stop wearing the mask, information that the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, immediately corrected to say that nothing was done, that it could be much later. Well no, it will be much sooner. Whenever a strong decision has been taken in the Defense Council,she leaked a few days before, just to test her, to see how it reacted. This time, nothing: pragmatism and opportunism.

Basically, is it shocking?

Not really.

Emmanuel Macron has been on the front line since the start of the health crisis, it is he who took directly on him the effects of confinements, of the deprivation of liberty imposed on the French.

It was he who took the risk, in February, of forcing the opinion of doctors to deconfin more quickly.

It is he who can now reap the political dividends of the good news of ending the curfew and the wearing of masks in public.

It's fair game….

But all this comes three days before the first round of regional elections, and there is no doubt that the candidates of La République en Marche, who all claim to be Emmanuel Macron, will be able to take advantage of it. And as the President is already accused of intervening directly in the campaign with his trips to the provinces, today on the lands of his political opponent Xavier Bertrand, pragmatoralism should not become mere electoralism.