Paris (AFP)
The Republicans and the National Gathering criticized Friday the "powerlessness" of the government in the face of Covid-19 and "the sinking live" according to them of Prime Minister Jean Castex the day before during a political program.
For the number two of the National Rally Jordan Bardella, Jean Castex appeared as "the lawyer of a bankrupt state which is today unable to protect the French", he estimated on France 2 Friday morning.
"France is going through a health, economic and historical authority crisis. And this evening, the Prime Minister of France, surrounded by his government internship buddies, offers the French a frightening spectacle of emptiness. Yes, this tinkering, this impotence, this spiel, are frightening ", tweeted Thursday evening the Secretary General of the Republicans Aurélien Pradié.
In the channel's "You have the floor" program on Thursday evening, Jean Castex said he assumed the government's policy against Covid-19 and a new record of more than 16,000 contaminations.
"We are not playing with an epidemic", he also warned, calling for "responsibility" in the face of the virus, "necessarily collective", in the face of a sling of local elected officials in Marseille.
He also admitted that he did not download the StopCovid contact tracing app, which is being promoted by the government to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
"We are no longer close to a contradiction in this government. Where has the government's doctrine gone?" Asked the boss of deputies LR Damien Abad about this application that Mr. Castex has not downloaded.
"Nothing astonishes me any more on behalf of this government", lamented Jordan Bardella.
For RN spokesman Sébastien Chenu, "the sinking live" by Jean Castex "wonderfully symbolizes the sinking of the state. Ministers who do not have the StopCovid app. A refusal to say that delinquents must be afraid. + Fight + without guarantee on Bridgestone. 0 direction. "
The Prime Minister assured that the government would "discuss step by step" with Bridgestone to "convince" the group "to invest" in the Bethune site which is to close, but that "the game will be very complicated".
Side associations, Jean-François Julliard, leader of Greenpeace, deplored that "for two hours" of emission there was "not (was) a single word of the ecological crisis. Nothing. Not even an allusion".
The Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, for her part, greeted in a tweet "a Prime Minister who listens and is determined. Ready to protect the French and transform the country".
© 2020 AFP