Coronavirus: the session of the European Parliament transferred from Strasbourg to Brussels

The European Parliament in Strasbourg. AFP / Frederick Florin

Text by: Angélique Férat

The European Parliament will not meet in Strasbourg this week as planned but will go to Brussels. The decision was taken Friday, March 6 by the President of the European Parliament while Alsace is a hotbed of the coronavirus epidemic in France.

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From our correspondent in Strasbourg,

Coronavirus epidemic or not, some elected officials have stepped up in the name of the defense of Strasbourg as the seat of the European Parliament. Anne Sander, Alsatian MEP from the Les Républicains party, angrily tweeted: " We must not relocate to Brussels, but simply cancel the session ". Other French elected officials went stronger with words like " ridiculous ", " scandalous ", " a gift to the adversaries of Strasbourg ".

Political quarrels cannot make us forget that Alsace is a hotbed of the coronavirus epidemic in France. Strasbourg and northern Alsace have only 49 cases, but the numbers are increasing every day. The Racing-PSG football match on Saturday March 7 has been postponed and a music festival has been scheduled. The candidates for the municipal elections in Strasbourg canceled their last campaign meetings planned for this week in the name of the precautionary principle.

Fear of an explosion of contagion

In Strasbourg, we fear in fact an explosion of contagion as in the south of Alsace. Mulhouse and its region are seriously affected: 162 cases are listed there. An evangelical meeting of 2,000 people detonated the contamination. To stem the epidemic, all schools will remain closed this Monday March 9 and for two weeks in the Haut-Rhin department.

According to the treaties, the European Parliament sits in plenary session in Strasbourg twelve times a year. A parliamentary session represents 700 deputies and their assistants who travel for three and a half days in the Alsatian capital.

► Read also: Faced with the progression of the coronavirus, France is beating its sanitary weapons

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  • France
  • European Union
  • Coronavirus

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