The time to decide for Emmanuel Macron: faced with the "exponential" worsening of the Covid-19 epidemic, the president must decide and announce to the French, Wednesday, October 28, unpopular new restrictions which could go up to reconfinement of the country, however less strict than in the spring.

Two weeks after announcing the curfew for 46 million French people, Emmanuel Macron is forced to further reduce the wing, facing an "exponential increase, in most of Europe, of the epidemic", in the words used Tuesday evening by government spokesman Gabriel Attal.

The head of state will chair a new Defense Council on Wednesday morning, the second in two days, before the Council of Ministers.

Conjectures and rumors should follow until Emmanuel Macron's announcements at 8 p.m. on television.

“Everything can move until the last moment,” warned a ministerial adviser.

In the meantime, the executive is preparing the spirits: "new measures" are "essential", Prime Minister Jean Castex told politicians and social partners invited Tuesday evening to a consultation meeting.

The crisis calls more than ever for the unity of the Nation and the responsibility of its representatives.


Parliamentarians, local elected officials, party leaders, social partners: the consultations that I have just concluded are essential.


They will inform our strategy and our choices.

pic.twitter.com/GOfu1qjamS

- Jean Castex (@JeanCASTEX) October 27, 2020

Same speech by Gabriel Attal who listed the "possible" measures, "namely an extension of the curfew (or) a confinement that can be (either) territorialized, (or) national".

The scenario of the national reconfinement envisaged would however be more flexible than that of March since schools and businesses would remain open, like that imposed in Ireland.

The executive also examined the possibility of strengthening the curfew, which currently affects 54 departments and some 46 million inhabitants between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

"Preserving schools" and "maintaining a semblance of economic life"

"The feeling we have is rather that we are going towards confinement, that it will last a few weeks and that the government is trying to find the means to preserve schools, public services" and "to maintain a semblance of economic life to avoid a disaster ", summarized François Baroin, president of the Association of Mayors of France, at the end of the meeting.

"We understood that the gravity was at an important level and that the decisions that the government is about to take will meet this responsibility," said Yves Veyrier, secretary general of FO after more than two hours of meeting with the Prime Minister. minister.

Jean Castex announced to political leaders that debates followed by votes on the fight against Covid-19 would take place in the National Assembly on Thursday morning and in the Senate in the afternoon.

>> To read: Covid-19 in France: reinforced curfew, re-containment… What options for the government?

But after an already stormy session of questions to the government in the afternoon in the Assembly, the oppositions sounded the charge, criticizing a late government of a metro and a false consultation.

"Nothing was put on the table" by the Prime Minister, regretted Christian Jacob, the boss of the Republicans, by deploring "the feeling of improvisation, of panic, of lack of anticipation" of the capacity.

Marine Le Pen questioned "the completely erratic management of the health crisis", while the Communist Fabien Roussel called for "coherent measures which are understood by our fellow citizens".

Gabriel Attal for his part blasted those who criticize without offering anything, particularly targeting Marine Le Pen, part according to him before Jean Castex answered the questions asked.

More than 33,000 new positive cases confirmed on Tuesday

The fear of the authorities is above all the saturation of intensive care services: the number of intensive care patients amounted to 2,900 on Tuesday, or half of the 5,800 sheaf beds available throughout France, where the epidemic has already affected more than 35,000 dead.

The government reported on Tuesday 288 deaths in hospital for the last 24 hours and 235 in nursing homes over the last four days.

On Tuesday, eight patients from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes were transferred by medical plane to Pays de la Loire to relieve the intensive care services in the region.

In total, 25 patients should have been transferred by Wednesday to other regions since the resumption of these flights at the end of last week.

>> To read: Covid-19: the end of the dream of collective immunity?

More than 33,000 new confirmed positive cases were recorded on Tuesday, below the 50,000 per day mark reached on Sunday.

But Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, President of the Scientific Council, estimates that the real number of contaminations would turn "around 100,000 cases per day", a "critical" situation with the fear of a second wave "stronger than the first. ".

Warning from Medef against "a collapse of the economy"

For infectious disease specialist Gilles Pialoux, it is necessary to impose a new containment, a "drastic measure" essential because the circulation of the virus "is out of control".

But beware, warned the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, from Monday: "If we completely reconfine as we did in March, it is not less than 10% of recession that we risk, c 'is a collapse of the economy.

>> To read: Covid-19: WHO warns of the danger of giving up control of the pandemic

Even before the announcements of the Head of State, the Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne assured the social partners on Tuesday evening of the extension beyond 1 November of the remainder to be paid by 15% when a company has no other choice than to put all or part of its employees on partial unemployment.

The Trade Alliance, which represents 27,000 stores, has called on the government to keep stores open "during the day and on weekends", fearing "dramatic consequences as the holiday season approaches. ".

To avoid the spring wind of panic, supermarkets assured consumers that they would be stocked and that there was "no need to stock up" some products.

With AFP

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