One crisis, two atmospheres. While the tragedy of the coronavirus is hitting France hard, the opposition seems more and more divided between two attitudes to adopt vis-à-vis the executive. On the one hand, "government parties", eager to free themselves from any criticism of recovery; on the other, formations, from LFI to RN, whose attacks against the government hardened.
After writing a letter to Emmanuel Macron on March 22, in which he points to the “danger” of a “power that is no longer contradicted by the facts”, the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure acknowledged on Sunday on France Inter that "Managing a crisis like this is very complicated" for the government. "We do not want to pose as donors of lessons," added the socialist cautiously, however, he wanted to "control the action of the government".
After Gérard Larcher who said Sunday, in our columns, that "national disunity would be the worst thing", the boss of LR, Christian Jacob also ensures this Monday evening in Le Figaro that he does not "replace the executive ”and observes that“ the government is in its role ”and that it“ acts ”.
A remark that sounds a bit like a call to order to his own troops. While he himself had coronavirus, he had been silent since the start of confinement, several LR lieutenants did not fail to multiply the criticisms, sometimes harsh, on the use of masks, the absence of generalized disinfection in the streets or on the use, too shy according to them, of chloroquine.
Mélenchon intends to embody an alternative for the future
On March 12, in the wake of Emmanuel Macron's first speech, Jean-Luc Mélenchon also assures us that this is not the time for "controversy". "It will have taken a global crisis for the President of the Republic to understand that the model of a world is dead," he said, almost seeming to give credit to Emmanuel Macron.
Two and a half weeks later, and while various polls have shown that French confidence in the executive vis-à-vis the coronavirus drops sharply, the same Mélenchon warns in L'Obs: "The world after Macron sauce will be another neoliberal shock. While globalization is on the dock, Jean-Luc Mélenchon intends to embody an alternative for the future, and pleads for the executive to unveil its plan to get out of containment.
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A sign that does not deceive: in recent days he has relayed several tweets which describe him as a "statesman". Very virulent also against Christophe Castaner, he describes him on March 26 as a "shabby liar" who "knew the danger" that would have been the holding of the first round of municipal elections.
#Castaner is a lousy liar because he dies of fear. He knows he will be tried: he organized these elections without our advice, even though he knew the danger. #it's your turn to speak
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) March 26, 2020The refrain of the lie is also intoned by Marine Le Pen who accuses this Monday on France Info the government of lying on "absolutely everything, without any exception". "National unity can not be done around the lie," insists the president of the RN who, since the beginning of the epidemic, multiplies tweets and media interventions to say that she had "the prescience" of the gravity of crisis. “At the beginning, she asked questions. Now she is questioning the government, observes an RN executive. It must be recognized that public opinion has changed in recent days. And that she has anticipated well. "