Vaccinations, restrictions ... a thorny week for the French executive
Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to make decisions on Thursday, January 7 on what to do in the coming weeks.
AP - Benoit Tessier
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
After a weekend marked by the controversy over the slowness of the vaccination campaign in France, a delicate week opens for Emmanuel Macron and the government.
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Coup de com 'or real anger?
According to the
Sunday Journal
, Emmanuel Macron does not hesitate to express his dissatisfaction with the
beginnings of vaccination in France
.
“
We are on a family walk pace.
This is up to neither the moment nor the French, he
believes.
It must change quickly and strongly.
The Head of State would particularly like doctors who wish to be able to be vaccinated quickly.
For the past few days, they have been firing in all directions.
Why is the vaccination campaign moving so slowly?
Why not set up vaccinodromes?
Have the logistics been well prepared?
While abroad,
we vaccinate by the thousands
, only a few hundred French people have been vaccinated since the start of the campaign last week.
Criticism from all sides
Scientists and politicians consider that there is urgency.
On the right and on the left, many have already drawn a parallel between the management of vaccination and that of masks and then tests.
For number 2 of the National Rally Jordan Bardella, France is even the "laughing stock of the world".
"
When we vaccinated 450 people in seven days, when countries of comparable size like Germany which has already vaccinated 180,000 people and we realize that we are not ready, I find that shameful
", he said on LCI.
Invited on the same channel a few hours later, government spokesman Gabriel Attal refuted any lack of preparation or panic within the government.
For him, everything was said in the
wishes of President Emmanuel Macron
: France has a strategy that leads to a more gradual start, but no question of allowing unwarranted delays to take hold.
"
This is what led the Minister of Health Olivier Véran to announce an acceleration on a number of points
", notes Gabriel Attal.
And in particular an early vaccination of health professionals.
The government assures us: the objective of 26 million French people vaccinated before the summer remains relevant.
Many questions
In addition to that of vaccination, the questions raised by the Covid-19 pandemic and to which the executive must find solutions are already numerous at the start of the year.
Will the curfew measures have made it possible to curb the epidemic resumption?
How will the start of the school year be when it has been partially postponed in the United Kingdom?
Will it be necessary to expand the areas under curfew from 6 p.m., or even decree a third confinement?
"
The trend is worrying,
" warns the Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon, while waiting to see the effect of the end of the year holidays on the contaminations curve.
Prime Minister Jean Castex will take decisions on Thursday, January 7.
If we already know that cultural venues will not reopen, what about the bars and restaurants supposed to reopen on January 20?
"
Beware of social anger,
" warns the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez.
In order not to suffer politically, not to lose control and in accordance with what he initiated during his vows, Emmanuel Macron is determined to defend his record from the first days of January.
Tuesday, the president will be in Tours to defend his reform of alimony, which entered into force on January 1.
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