Anne Hidalgo does not budge. While Paris is a red zone on the government's deconfinement map, the mayor still wants to reopen some 170 parks and gardens, out of the 400 in the capital. If the Minister of Health Olivier Véran immediately opposed this measure, the city council intends to succeed, and proposed a health protocol to try to bend the authorities. "We will try to find a way to convince the government that this is a good idea in terms of health," confirmed this Wednesday at the microphone of Europe 1 Emmanuel Grégoire, assistant to the mayor of Paris.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation
"Strict operating conditions"
"We have the same objectives as the government, that is to say support the deconfinement strategy without taking any health risk," he insists. "We believe that the opening of parks and gardens would ease the pressure on the use of public space, but under strict operating conditions that we are ready to assume and control." A health protocol which includes "wearing a recommended mask" or even "compulsory", and a ban on "static activities", such as "sunbathing in the sun" and "picnics". As a final measure, the mayor of Paris plans in its protocol to mobilize municipal agents to enforce these rules, and to carry out educational dispersions if necessary.
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Coronavirus: the French Academy has decided, it will now be necessary to say “the” Covid-19
> Coronavirus: is the second wave inevitable?
> Gatherings, trips, sport: what remains prohibited despite the deconfinement
> Deconfinement: what you need to know about returning to work
> Deconfinement: what hygiene for self-service bikes, scooters and scooters?
An idea that appeals to Parisians, but questions remain
Pending the end of the standoff that has been engaged between the Capital and the government on this subject, Parisians welcome the idea of being able to reinvest, during a stroll, certain green spaces with a smile. "There are enough to hang out like that around the crowded places", lets go a Parisian at the microphone of Europe 1. "We walk every day around the parks, so it would be better and safer to be inside, "says another resident.
If the idea is attractive, in practice, the application of sanitary measures is questioning. "Unless you make a journey as in an Ikea with a safe distance and being one behind the other, I don't really see how we will respect the instructions," points out a Parisian.
>> PODCAST - Coronavirus: find all the answers to your questions here
Olivier Véran's "niet" ....
Avoiding crowds and maintaining physical distancing at any cost, are two arguments used Tuesday by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran to motivate his refusal to Anne Hidalgo. "It can be extremely tempting by the sun we have today that people gather too much, crowd too much, that they do not respect groups of ten and that they cannot respect the conditions of barrier gestures ", he explained.
... and the bad example of the banks of the Saint-Martin canal
And the example given by Parisians on Monday along the Saint-Martin canal should not have worked in favor of a reopening of part of the Parisian parks and gardens. Dozens of people were gathered there to enjoy the first evening of deconfinement, ignoring social distancing. The police had to intervene to dislodge them, while the prefect of police Didier Lallement prohibited the consumption of alcohol "on the whole of the linear of the ways on banks in the capital" the following day.
For her part, government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said Wednesday, after the Council of Ministers, "inappropriate reopening, given the liveliness of the circulation of the virus in Paris and the Ile-de-France region ".