Some elected officials are called to order on the issue of masks. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Thursday asked the prefects to "withdraw the orders" made by mayors to make it compulsory to wear a mask in the street against the coronavirus. "I asked the prefects to speak with these mayors so that they withdraw their orders during the entire period of containment," the minister said Thursday before the parliamentary fact-finding mission on the Covid-19 epidemic which l was auditioning.
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For the government, these orders pose questionable principles. Before the deputies, the Minister of the Interior thus explained that they risked sending a misleading message to the population. "It is not consistent with the requirement of confinement, because it suggests that we can get out if we have a mask, by breaking the rules of confinement," he said. In addition, he judged, "it is a subject of territorial equality. Certain communes can have the means to equip the whole of their population in masks, when others would not have it". Finally, Christophe Castaner argues that the health effectiveness of wearing a mask imposed on an entire population has not been medically demonstrated.
Three municipalities had taken such an order
So far, three municipalities have issued a decree of this type, supported by the Association of Mayors of France: Val-d'Isère, Royan, where the mayor has withdrawn, and Sceaux, where the test has been suspended Thursday, after a complaint from the League for Human Rights. At the microphone of Europe 1, the mayor of Sceaux, Philippe Laurent, denounces a "unacceptable" situation. "I have the response of a minister who is unable to enforce confinement and who gives us lessons. The mayors know better than the Minister of the Interior what is important for the inhabitants of their commune."
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As to whether the municipalities will one day have the right to make the wearing of masks compulsory, Christophe Castaner refers the question to after confinement. Cities like Cannes, Paris or Nice already say they are thinking about it.