Paris (AFP)
Despite containment measures, France must "keep turning": Emmanuel Macron urged businesses and employees on Thursday to continue their activity so that the economy, already very affected by the coronavirus crisis, does not stop .
"We must continue to produce and run the country," said the head of state on the sidelines of a visit to the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
He had sent the same mobilization message a few hours earlier during a videoconference with Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, several members of the government and economic officials.
Emmanuel Macron will chair a new Defense Council devoted to the coronavirus crisis on Friday morning, four days after the implementation of containment measures, said the Elysee.
The executive is trying to limit the consequences of the pandemic which has imposed "a powerful, massive, brutal halt to our economy", according to Edouard Philippe.
Emmanuel Macron therefore called for corporate "civic + responsibility". And wanted employees to work "in compliance with health safety rules".
For the Elysee, this is not "contradictory" with the containment measures announced Monday evening by the Head of State.
"The line remains: + You stay at home + (...) but the pursuit of activity has never been ruled out". "It is absolutely compatible and necessary to mix the two," said the presidency.
For her, going to her workplace is one of the exceptions to the containment rule, as long as the worker is able to protect himself on the spot: minimum distance from each other, possibility of washing hands regularly. .
"In this case, employees can return to their workplace by making no other trip than the return trip that is required," insists the Elysée. "There are many companies in which it is possible".
- "Premiums" -
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, had launched a similar message on Wednesday, explaining that manpower was starting to be lacking in mass distribution and transport, even if the stores remain well supplied.
His colleague from Labor, Muriel Pénicaud, struck harder on Thursday morning saying he was "scandalized" by the "defeatism" of a federation of construction companies which asked its members to stop their construction sites.
"We need everyone on the bridge," said the minister on the LCI channel.
His remarks mark the culmination of a conflict that has been brewing for several days between the government and the construction companies.
The latter consider the situation untenable in the face of doubts about the supply of materials, but also the willingness of employees to stay at home to protect themselves, and the contradictory orders given by the customers of the companies as to whether or not to continue the work.
Faced with speeches of this type, the Elysée takes issue with the idea that whole swathes of the economy would be doomed to go to a halt during all confinement, on the grounds that they are not essential like food or health industries.
"There is no essential sector, of activity which could continue to turn when the others are stopped", explains the Elysée, underlining the interdependence between the various economic sectors.
By opening the videoconference, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to "value all those who go to work". In particular "farmers, those who process (the products), who distribute them, who are at the cash desks in the shops, who manage the waste, who are at the counters of banks, in our factories and in our industries". So many employees who "we need" and who will have to be "rewarded by bonus systems". "We are going to put in place the mechanisms to do them," he said, without giving details.
leb-jri-ab-jdy / cg / ib / mm
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