A final warning shot addressed to the French?
Jean Castex hinted at it bluntly on Thursday: if the extension of the curfew was not enough to curb the spread of the epidemic, "we will have to consider much harsher measures", he said. guard, without giving more details.
"The new announcements of Thursday, it is the last exit before the tunnel", adds the boss of the Republic in March, Stanislas Guerini, who dramatizes: "Every day when the awareness of the situation is not at the level , it's a lost day.
What happens in the next fortnight will be inevitable.
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VIDEO. 38 additional departments under curfew from this weekend
Officially, in the aisles of power, we are careful not to let go of the angry word, but, according to our information, the hypothesis of local reconfigurations is indeed on the table: "It is not the will of the executive, but we are working on scenarios of this type, "confirms on condition of anonymity a government adviser, before continuing:" At some point, if the figures do not change, we will no longer have the choice .
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With a virus still gaining ground, intensive care services soon to be saturated, all signals are turning red.
“The president's television interview last week should have caused an electric shock but it did not take place.
People continue to pile up on the terraces and in the restaurants, ”says a close friend of Macron in despair.
Public opinion is not the only one not to take the measure of the threat.
On Wednesday afternoon, the political party leaders gathered in Matignon thus lent only a distracted ear to Olivier Véran's introductory intervention on the virus.
"Public opinion can only stand one electroshock"
“He said the word excess mortality for the first time.
It struck me.
But opposite, 90% of the questions were devoted to the question of the possible postponement of regional and departmental “, relates a participant.
Faced with this second wave which is surging, would the executive have also considered striking even harder from this Thursday to awaken consciousness?
“Public opinion can only take one electroshock.
It should have been the health crisis, but there was the Conflans attack which swept everything away.
In terms of collective psychology, we cannot bear two electroshocks in the same week, ”explains Guérini.
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But at the Elysee Palace we are still trying by all means to avoid the disaster scenario, that of reconfinement, even local, and its devastating effects on the economy.
“Everything will be done to break the curve of the evolution of the virus.
And before talking about a re-containment, we still have tools, levels, such as an extension of curfew hours, ”said the president's entourage.
But if these measures prove ineffective, then Emmanuel Macron will have to make a decision.
"He will take it at the very last moment, once he has weighed all the arguments to the end", already anticipates one of his evening visitors.