Paris (AFP)

Large retailers once again defended themselves on Saturday for having built up "hidden stocks" of single-use masks, a controversy "void" for the boss of the Leclerc group, "insane" for that of Système U.

The Orders of the health professions were offended in a scathing text of the "staggering" number of masks announced for sale by the large distribution from Monday: "100 million here, 50 million there. Who says better? C is the escalation of indecency. "

"I find it disgusting because it breaks the front that has been built between health personnel and the economic world", reacted the president of the giant Leclerc, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, in an interview with the Journal du dimanche, judging the controversy "null, childish, sterile".

"It is defamation to say that Leclerc or Système U buried the masks in cellars while others needed them. We must stop the bullshit, there is no wolf", has t -he adds.

"The masks are coming now, so this idea of ​​hidden stocks, of accumulation, these are bad invented scenarios," he insisted.

"This mask controversy is insane and unfounded," tweeted the CEO of System U, Dominique Schelcher.

"The situation is simple: our orders for surgical masks for sale to the public date from 04/24, the day of government authorization. Before, we just had enough to protect our teams," he also said. wrote, in response to the president of the Paca region, Renaud Muselier (LR).

The latter threatened, in a tweet, of filing a "complaint for endangering the life of others and failure to assist person in danger" and given "three days to the large distribution to prove that it had not secret mask stock during the crisis. "

The leader of the LR opposition deputies, Damien Abad, castigated him for his "lack of anticipation", saying he was "supplanted by supermarkets".

"Large retailers have announced not mask stocks, but orders for masks", had relativized earlier the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, adding that "large retailers (told him) today (Saturday, editor's note) have the equivalent of 5 or even 10 million masks ". "We are very far from the 500 million" imported in particular by the state, he said.

The Intermarché and Netto brands (grouping Les Mousquetaires) have split a "development" in a press release.

They indicate having been delivered, between April 13 and May 2, 50 million single-use masks, sold in boxes of 50, or one million boxes for 2,100 stores, which will go on sale during the week of 4 may.

"All of the following quantities of single-use masks are at the ordering stage," insist the brands.

"Intermarché and Netto will provide professional organizations that have been unable or unable to organize themselves to provide masks to the French population with their sourcing and purchasing assistance," they add.

Aiming without naming the pharmacists, Intermarché and Netto also say they wish that "these professional organizations undertake to sell the masks that they would import at cost price, considering that it is not possible to carry out improper capture of value when the health of the French is at stake ".

"Almost all surgical masks sold in supermarkets in France will be" at cost ", assured the general delegate of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD), Jacques Creyssel, Saturday on Franceinfo.

© 2020 AFP