A confinement which is not really one, a certificate of exit so bureaucratic and indecipherable that it has undergone numerous modifications, the AstraZeneca vaccination which resumes after a three-day break ... Recent news related to the Covid-19 crisis in France aroused their share of controversy.
To take a step back, we asked several foreign correspondents based in Paris their point of view and that of the country for which they work.
"We can no longer tell about rule changes because it becomes too confusing and it changes so often", testifies Leo Klimm, employee of the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“Until recently, in Italy, you could find out in a press conference at midnight what the new rules were.
So we don't have too many lessons to teach on communication, ”jokes Anaïs Ginori, who works for Repubblica.
"Containment", yes, but how?
It is above all the very meaning of the word "confinement" that makes people react.
During his press conference Thursday, March 18, Jean Castex also referred to Germany, which "has applied strict confinement for three months".
This expression elicited many comments from across the Rhine.
Schools and non-essential businesses are closed, but Germans are not subject to exit restrictions or a curfew.
“Perhaps French thought has been contaminated by the German crisis?
“The French correspondent of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Michaela Wiegel, quipped on Twitter.
Der 🇫🇷 Regierungschef @JeanCASTEX hat heute Abend seinen Landsleuten zur Beruhigung verkündet, 🇩🇪erlebe seit 3 Monaten einen strikten Lockdown - vielleicht hat ihn jetzt auch die „German crisis of French thought“ gepackt # COVID19france
- Michaela Wiegel (@MichaelaWiegel) March 18, 2021
Finally, the changes are more than modest in France: in sixteen departments, businesses that do not sell basic necessities must close, but it is possible to leave home without a time limit on condition of staying within a radius of 10km around his home.
“I held a live Friday evening to explain what this new confinement was, and on Saturday evening I read Olivier Véran in Le Parisien saying that it was not.
I think that many of the listeners who followed all this were lost, ”testifies Rebecca Rosman, a freelance journalist who works for several American media, including the American public radio NPR.
“It becomes a real problem of vocabulary.
What we hear behind lockdown [confinement in English, Editor's note] is very different depending on the country, ”underlines for her part the correspondent of a major British media.
Stereotypes about bureaucracy in France
This “Canada dry” confinement also marks the great return of the daytime certificate in the sixteen departments concerned.
But it, two pages long and fourteen motifs, drew a flurry of criticism for its publication on Saturday morning.
And finally, for trips of less than 10km ... proof of address will suffice.
"In my first article after the press conference on Friday morning, I immediately wrote that it was already absurd to give yourself permission, but even more so if you can go out all day", remembers Martina Meiser.
Such a system is considered "lunar" in Germany, adds his colleague Leo Klimm.
"In the United States, they already found it bizarre to have to fill out a paper to have the right to go out ... What happened this weekend confirms the stereotypes that Americans have, especially on bureaucracy and technostructure in France, ”adds Rebecca Rosman.
READ ALSO>
Confinement: movement, authorized activities, exemptions ... All our answers to your questions
Among the main neighboring countries, Italy is the only one which requests the same type of document from its population in the reconfined territories.
“I can hear the German colleagues who talk about
absurdistan
in France
.
But
s
ur paperwork and bureaucracy, it's not much better in Italy.
We are also the ones who invented this certification story last year, ”smiles Anaïs Ginori.
"Absurdistan", the word was released in November by journalist Annika Joeres in the German daily "Die Zeit".
"Less complicated than explaining what Islamo-leftism is"
On the other side of the Channel, it is above all the AstraZeneca vaccination which reacts… and in particular its suspension for three days.
The product was developed by the British group in partnership with Oxford University.
So, "the British media are obsessed with this subject because they do not support that we spit on this vaccine and that Europe wants to steal doses from them," says the correspondent already quoted.
The subject is also very commented, especially since "one feels that the French do not really want to be vaccinated whereas it is quite the opposite there", notes Rebecca Rosman.
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
PODCAST.
How did the AstraZeneca vaccine come to this?
The story of a doubt
When you ask these foreign correspondents the main difference between their country and France, the schools often come back.
In France, the policy is to leave them open and to only consider closing them as a last resort.
An exception among the main European countries.
"Italians do not understand that we close them almost last in France when it is the first thing that we close at home," says Anaïs Ginori.
"The Germans are rather admiring it and France scores points on this subject", indicates for his part Léo Klimm.
As best they can, these journalists try to transcribe the events as best as possible, without falling into the clichés which their audiences sometimes adore.
As Martina Meiser concludes, deciphering the Covid news in France, “it's still less complicated than explaining what Islamo-leftism is”.