Paris (AFP)

A "yes but of anger", "inconsistent steering", "stinging failure": even before the debate scheduled for Thursday in parliament, the opposition parties shot the executive's policy in the face of Covid-19, even if they call for respect for the confinement announced Wednesday by Emmanuel Macron.

"We will of course respect the instructions," said the president of the National Rally Marine Le Pen.

But "the erratic management of the crisis and the lack of anticipation of this second wave are the reason for decisions which will be very hard to overcome for many of our compatriots and our companies," she warned.

The Republicans also denounced a "scathing failure" of the management of the crisis by Mr. Macron, like Bruno Retailleau, president of the senators Les Républicains.

The president took "measures under duress, taking into account very partially part of the disastrous consequences on the economic level of the containment of the spring. In terms of health he tried to justify the unjustifiable because nothing has was done for eight months, "Christian Jacob, president of LR, told AFP.

"Vote Thursday? This exercise does not mean anything. We are going to vote on what? Parliament is made to legislate, not to give an opinion on the televised performance of a president of the republic", he ruled, in reference to debates followed by votes scheduled in the Assembly and the Senate.

For Damien Abad, president of the LR deputies, "this reconfinement is the failure of deconfinement which was not carried out under protection as we had proposed".

"Emmanuel Macron confines the French to their homes but leaves our borders open within the European Union ... Incomprehensible!" Exclaimed Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, president of Debout la France.

On the left, Olivier Faure, first secretary of the PS, told AFP to call for "absolute rigor to respect confinement".

And "I will vote tomorrow (Thursday) the proposed measures".

- "No lessons learned" -

"But it is a + yes + of anger! What is requested today should have been done several weeks ago", he added, regretting the "uncertainties" which remain, in particular on teleworking .

"Who decides who is teleworking?"

"We will have to remove these uncertainties very quickly".

In scathing terms, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of LFI, denounced on Twitter the "failure" of the deconfinement of the summer.

"The epidemic is out of control. The president too. No lessons learned. All sources of contamination remain open. But what remains of our lives? We will respect sanitary discipline. But without condoning this inconsistent management."

"No other choice than to confine ... terrible reality for our country, faced with this deadly virus. But also because our health system is bloodless," also tweeted Fabien Roussel, boss of the PCF.

Environmentalists also deplore a "lack of anticipation of this 2nd wave", like Julien Bayou, boss of EELV, on FranceInfo.

"We call on citizens to be civic and to respect the new confinement announced this evening by the President of the Republic" even if "we regret that the alert of the Scientific Council of September 22 which clearly announced the risks associated with a delay decision in the face of the second wave of the pandemic was not taken into consideration earlier (...). But there is a time for everything. Now is not the time for controversy, "said Delphine Batho, president of Génération ecologie, in a press release.

In more conciliatory terms, Yannick Jadot, MEP EELV, affirmed that "our country (had to) face a new test which the protection of our health requires".

He called on "the President and the government to redouble their efforts to support the most vulnerable among us, in the population as well as in businesses and businesses".

Stanislas Guérini, boss of the presidential party La République en Marche, has him, without surprise, estimated on twitter that the new confinement is "a difficult decision to make but we are a united and united nation. We will get there, together".

© 2020 AFP