Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday evening the re-containment of nearly a third of the French.

And this at the end of weeks of procrastination, when everything will have been done to take Emmanuel Macron's bet not to reconfigure the country.

This imbroglio will have a political cost, forecasts our editorialist Nicolas Beytout.

EDITORIAL

After weeks of hesitation and contradictory statements, particularly in recent days, the government announced Thursday evening through the voice of Jean Castex the re-containment of nearly a third of the French, from Saturday.

For our editorialist Nicolas Beytout, this waltz-hesitation will have a political cost for Emmanuel Macron.

It was quite unexpected: the Prime Minister announced last night a third confinement for, roughly, a third of the French.

And despite the attempts of Jean Castex and the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, to demonstrate the excellence of French performance in terms of vaccination, the country will pay dearly for the French mess in the vaccination campaign.

To date, 1 in 2 English people is vaccinated, against barely 1 in 10 French people. We knew that our way out of the health crisis depended on the speed race between the vaccine and the variants.

It is clear, and the Head of State admits it himself, it is the virus that has won, he has become "the master of time".

Immediate confinement instead of a "return to a more normal life"

And so, we could conclude that a re-containment was part of the probabilities.

Yes but no.

Or no, but yes, as you wish.

If we listen to the doctors, yes, many were asking for a new confinement, and this since the end of January.

But sorry, that was not at all the tone of the message delivered by the Head of State and his government.

Since he had made the bet not to lock France up again (unlike Germany or Italy, for example), Emmanuel Macron was doing and saying everything to justify his position.

It was necessary to hold, still a few difficult weeks, 4 to 6, "an increasingly near horizon", said the spokesperson of the government.

It was two weeks ago, and if I count correctly, there was therefore theoretically a short month left before what the government called "the return to a more normal life".

Well, instead we have the immediate confinement of part of the country.

Little sentences that distill incomprehension

Because the virus and its English variant suddenly sped up.

At least that's what Jean Castex says and it is surely true.

But why then all this optimistic speech held again Wednesday evening by Emmanuel Macron in front of mayors of the Paris region?

Why did you say in public that in the event of re-containment, life would be "impossible"?

Fighting the virus certainly requires adapting your discourse to the rhythm of the appearance of variants.

But not to say things clearly, to let marinate for several days a public opinion under pressure, to which one distils little phrases like: "We will make the decisions that we must take", is to install incomprehension.

I don't know if Emmanuel Macron won or lost his bet at the end of last January (after all, we won more free weeks than those now announced for part of France).

It does not matter whether the head of state was wrong or not, what is certain is that the French can have the feeling of having been cheated.

Doing everything not to be predictable is to feed disappointment.

And politically, this kind of episode necessarily has a cost.