Start of Senate hearings on the coronavirus crisis. The Senate Commission of Inquiry begins its investigations in the Grand-Est region, the hardest hit by Covid-19 with the Ile de France. The purpose of this commission is to assess the state of preparedness of France on the eve of the epidemic, and the management of the crisis by political and administrative officials.
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"This commission will be useful"
While the National Assembly also has its own committee, the Socialist David Assouline, a member of the Senate's commission of inquiry, promises to go further than his fellow deputies. "We will not be in the rehearsal, do not worry. You will see that this commission will be useful", he assures, evoking "evasive" answers or even "untruths" in the elements received by the National Assembly during its hearings. "We are going to work to deepen."
What will change with the senators is above all the shape of the hearings. Several of them will take place at a round table, explains Alain Milon, the chairman of the commission of inquiry. "If I audition Mr. Raoult all alone, he will probably try to tell us scientific things. Some will understand him, others will not. But if in front of him, we put Mr. Delfraissy (the president of the scientific council, Editor's note ), we will have a fight which will be extremely interesting. "
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"It was a nightmare"
The president of the Grand Est region, Jean Rottner, began the commission's public hearings on Wednesday evening. Also among the first to answer senators' questions, Brigitte Klinkert, the president of the Haut Rhin, who has meanwhile become minister responsible for integration. "It was a nightmare, and I think it is important to take stock so that we can learn all the lessons and act quickly when the time comes," she said. At the Ministry of Health, we do not hide our fed up of facing new long hours of hearings. An adviser even denounces "a media tribunal".