Paris (AFP)

Jean Castex had come to defend his strategy of "responsibility", the opposition to express his "anger" against his "lack of preparation", but the debate on the reconfinement in the Assembly was upset by the "frozen context" of the Nice attack.

At 9.43 am, the Prime Minister left the platform after his intervention on the reconfinement.

At the foot of the steps, his parliamentary collaborator, Julien Autret, whispered a few words in his ear about the situation in Nice.

Jean Castex goes back four to four.

He talks with Richard Ferrand, who speaks gravely.

"We have just learned that an extremely serious attack took place in Nice," declared the President of the National Assembly, before a minute's silence in the hemicycle and a break in the session.

The Nice deputy Eric Ciotti (LR) expressed his "immense emotion", Salle des Quatre-Colonnes, where parliamentarians followed one another.

During this time, Jean Castex momentarily left the Assembly to go to the crisis unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

"I will do my best to come back to this hemicycle to listen to your speeches and try to answer them", he assures the deputies, calling on the national representation "for unity and cohesion".

"We are in a tangle of crises. They accumulate and merge and throw the country in absolute fear", comments the deputy of Essonne Francis Chouat (related LREM).

"Never in fifty years of public life, had I known such a situation".

On the platform, the leader of the socialist group Valérie Rabault believes that it would have been necessary to "interrupt" and "postpone" this debate on the reconfinement.

- "Anxiety" -

"For my part, I have the deep conviction that precisely because terrorists attack our democracy, our Republic, that it is the honor of the National Assembly to continue to support our Republic", insists Richard Ferrand (LREM) at the perch.

But, because of the context, the boss of deputies LR Damien Abad indicates that his group will "not take part in the vote in conscience and responsibility so as not to add divisions in our country".

"Not sure that a vote that would show divisions in national representation is appropriate," he considers.

Year in and year out, the discussion continues.

"It is difficult to continue this debate", but since "it is necessary to continue, let us continue by gritting our teeth, by clenching our fists, thinking very hard about Nice," said LR Jean-Jacques Gaultier around noon, while Jean Castex is back.

In the meantime, Valérie Rabault (PS) has reiterated her "yes of anger" to the reconfinement, a "yes of responsibility" to protect the French, but an "anger" against "the lack of preparation" of the government.

"A man decides everything, all alone, surrounded by this above-ground defense council," said Jean-Luc Mélenchon about Emmanuel Macron and the management of the Covid-19.

"We don't have confidence, we have less and less confidence".

"We are not ready to face a second wave", also points out Damien Abad (LR).

Aurore Bergé (LREM), for her part, defends the re-containment, the "only responsible decision": "some prefer to treat electoral clienteles than to treat the French", she denounces.

Near the Quatre-Colonnes, Hubert Wulfranc (PCF), former mayor of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (Seine-Maritime) where in 2016 a priest was slaughtered in a jihadist attack, confides "reliving a tragedy".

"We are in such a state of anxiety with an exponential fear of the French for their health, for their work and for their life (...) There are enough of them to share this horrible reality".

Jean Castex takes the floor again at 12:40 in the hemicycle.

He denounces an attack "as cowardly as it is barbaric which mourns the whole country" and brings the vigipirate plan to the level of "emergency bombing" everywhere in France.

Then he castigates those who have decided not to take part in the vote: "When the house of France is in difficulty, we must take our responsibilities, we do not look away".

© 2020 AFP