Marseille (AFP)

"The cup is full", "Let us work", "unbearable": shouting their anger in an electric atmosphere, several hundred restaurateurs, supported by elected officials from all sides, gathered Friday in Marseille to protest against the news measures to fight Covid-19.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the commercial court, "because we may come and file our balance sheets there," says Bernard Marty, president of the Union des trades et des industries de l'hôtellerie des Bouches-du-Rhône, to the megaphone.

Invited by the prefect to a meeting at the start of the afternoon, Bernard Marty said he would rather go to the Didier Raoult University Hospital Institute, adjacent to the Timone, "to see the minister" Olivier Véran, calling all the same in "calm".

Hugo Chauffournier, manager of a bar in the Old Port, says he wants to continue "to campaign democratically for the moment".

"But if that doesn't work, we'll have to think of other solutions," he warns.

United against government measures, announced without consultation according to them, elected officials from all sides joined the demonstration.

Upon their arrival, Martine Vassal, LR president of the Aix-Marseille metropolis and the Bouches-du-Rhône department, and Renaud Muselier, LR president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, are applauded.

"It's important to support them to say that we are all in the same boat," Ms. Vassal told reporters.

"We are appealing for help: give us more resources for hospitals, more police forces to enforce the orders."

"I am going to tell Olivier Véran this afternoon that he is not the one who feeds the employees of these restaurants, of these bars, who will find themselves unemployed because Mr. Véran has unilaterally decided to close them. ", adds for her part to AFP Samia Ghali, second assistant to the town hall of Marseille.

- "#RESISTANCE" -

On Twitter, with the hashtag "#RESISTANCE", the elected official warns: "If this decision is upheld, the city @marseille will not assist in setting up the closures".

The elected representative also specified supporting the approach of Renaud Muselier, who announced that he wanted to file an interim relief against the prefectural decree imposing the new measures. The text had still not been published on Friday morning and its scope n is still not known.

Will it concern the entire Aix-Marseille metropolis, which covers 3,000 km2 and has 1.8 million inhabitants spread over 92 municipalities?

The turn of the screw announced Wednesday evening in the fight against Covid by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, defended by Prime Minister Jean Castex on France 2 on Thursday, caused an uproar, and not only in Marseille and its region.

Bars and restaurants will also have to close at 10 p.m. from Monday in 11 metropolises, including Paris, Lyon and Nice, all in "enhanced alert zones".

In Marseille, Professor Didier Raoult on Friday relaunched the debate around the figures for the epidemic and the need for new measures in Marseille: "The data from Public Health France (consolidated) are not able to justify the slightest panic concerning circulation of the virus in Marseille. Other departments, on the other hand, are far from having reached their epidemic peak for this phase ".

According to a figure communicated Thursday evening to AFP by the ARS (Regional Health Agency), the incidence rate of the virus in Marseille was 281 per 100,000 on September 20, down from that noted a week earlier , from 331.

According to the latest national report, 16,096 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in 24 hours, a level not reached since the launch of large-scale tests in the country.

In Île-de-France, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) warned that it was forced to deprogram 20% of surgical operations from this weekend.

© 2020 AFP