Mulhouse (AFP)
Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called for "union" to wage "war" against the coronavirus epidemic, triggering the military operation "Resilience" to support the population and promising a "massive investment plan" for hospitals and exceptional bonuses.
"We must have only one obsession, to be united" against the virus, hammered the head of state, lambasting "the factors of division" and "those and those who would like to fracture the country".
"When you start a war you engage in it entirely, you mobilize in the union," he insisted, after a visit to the military field hospital in Mulhouse who told him made it possible to pay tribute to the nursing staff and the army while the Great East was "hard hit" by the epidemic.
"The eyes are surrounded, the fatigue is present, the anxiety is there for themselves, for their colleagues for their family, I saw it today with great force. The whole nation is behind, grateful" , underlined Mr. Macron, praising the "exceptional courage" of the nursing staff.
This operation "will be entirely devoted to aid and support to the populations, as well as to support to the public service to face the epidemic in metropolitan France and overseas, in particular in the fields of health and protection, "said Macron. It will be used in particular in sending helicopter carriers to the Indian Ocean or the Antilles.
The Head of State also announced the establishment of a "massive investment and upgrading plan for all careers" at the hospital, promising to be "at the rendezvous of what we must ". "This response will be deep and lasting," he said.
Macron also assured that he had asked the government "to provide a clear and strong short-term response for all healthcare workers and all civil servants mobilized in order to increase the overtime worked and in the form of an exceptional bonus ".
It is "a little early" to know the amount of the bonus but the government will work on it, told AFP a government source.
The Head of State will also meet Friday "all the social partners" while 25 orders were adopted on Wednesday as part of the state of health emergency, some of which provide economic and social responses.
"A lot of work has been done in recent days to, sector by sector, provide the best answers, to organize work, to better protect at work," he said.
Emmanuel Macron also said he would speak again "in a few days" in order to "take a full picture of the situation". New decisions are awaited, in particular regarding a possible extension of the confinement period.
leb-bdx-jmt- / ib / dlm
© 2020 AFP