Richard Ferrand and Jean Castex.

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Jacques Witt / SIPA

  • Jean Castex presented to the National Assembly the confinement announced the day before by the Head of State.

  • In the midst of debates, the government and the deputies learned that an attack had taken place in a church in Nice.

  • The opposition denounced the government's lack of preparation but without questioning the confinement.

History is sometimes bitterly ironic.

Because it is Jean Castex, the former "Mister deconfinement" of the government, who presented this Thursday to the National Assembly the outlines of the new confinement announced by Emmanuel Macron yesterday.

"I am perfectly aware that the efforts and sacrifices which are once again requested from the country will weigh heavily on the life of each and every one of us", agreed the Prime Minister.

The latter defended for nearly thirty minutes the need for this new step in the fight against the coronavirus, which begins this Thursday at midnight.

The Nice attack interrupts the debates

“The virus is accelerating, we have to accelerate too.

[…] We must break the epidemic spiral, there is no other solution ”to save lives, he said.

The mechanical voice only rarely rises, when it is heckled by the opposition, which denounces the government's unpreparedness in the face of the increase in the epidemic.

“We knew that a second wave was possible or even probable, and we had anticipated it.

But the fact is that no country had foreseen that it would accelerate so suddenly and so brutally ”, defends the person concerned.

A slight wavering then traverses the benches of the hemicycle.

On the benches, faces darken.

The first information about the attack on Nice has fallen.

The tragic is added to the tragic.

Jean Castex slips a few words, off the microphone, to Richard Ferrand.

The President of the National Assembly interrupts: “We have just learned that an extremely serious attack took place in Nice.

He enforces a minute of silence and suspends the meeting.

Then Jean Castex returns: “This attack is a new very serious test which strikes our country.

I will be required to go to Place Beauvau at the interministerial crisis unit, ”he said before leaving the Assembly.

Some opponents wish to stop the debates, but the session continues.

"It is precisely because terrorists attack our democracy, our Republic, that it is the honor of the National Assembly to continue to support our Republic", explains Richard Ferrand from the perch.

"We should have interrupted this debate. The respect we owe to our fellow citizens, to the people of Nice, to the three deaths that there are apparently in Nice, this respect should have forced us to postpone our debate", declares @Valerie_Rabault to the applause .

#DirectAN #Confinement pic.twitter.com/VbCTOFIHr3

- LCP (@LCP) October 29, 2020

Opposition targets government record, but without too much heart

Then the representatives of the different political groups follow one another to explain their vote.

Valérie Rabault (Socialist Party) announces a "yes of anger" to confinement against "the lack of preparation" of the government, believing to have alerted several times against the "dysfunctions" of the first wave.

“Anyone can see that you are taken aback.

Deconfinement is a failure ”, abounds Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise).

The opposition prefers to target the management of the epidemic rather than containment, which all now deem necessary.

Certain pikes annoy the majority but, everywhere in the hemicycle, the heart is not really there any more.

Evoking a "freezing context", the rebellious tribune philosopher more than he strikes.

“What remains of our individual freedom?

Where have our collective freedoms gone?

How to name this society, between generalized surveillance and sporadic terrorism.

Is this how humans live?

No.

But let us know that there are no happy days without human resistance before.

"

The right is also critical but warns that it will not participate in the vote on the reconfinement "so as not to add divisions in our country".

Back, Jean Castex is annoyed: “When the France house is in difficulty, we must take our responsibilities.

The ballot is without suspense.

The National Assembly gives broad support, by 399 votes to 27, for the reconfinement decided by the executive.

Jean Castex soberly welcomes "a clear and unambiguous vote, commensurate with the serious circumstances that our country is going through".

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  • Confinement

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • National Assembly

  • Jean Castex

  • epidemic