It will cease to apply on Sunday, ie 10 days before the scheduled date.
The French who have been living under curfew since October 2020 will therefore still have to endure it three more days before the issue, at the end of the weekend.
But while the removal of the obligation to wear a mask outdoors took direct effect this Thursday after the announcements of Prime Minister Jean Castex, why wait?
Epidemiologist Catherine Hill sees no justification from a health point of view.
The threat of the Delta variant?
For three days, the argument does not hold.
"It is a political decision, purely practical," she slices.
The researcher from the Gustave-Roussy Institute in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) thus points to the role of young people and the festive events which have brought together a certain number of them in recent days in the decision of the executive.
“We can see that a curfew at 11 pm has become impossible.
There is no point in setting rules that no one follows.
We are not going to send the police to Les Invalides all the time telling people to
stop having fun and go home
, ”she emphasizes.
A decision that germinated last weekend
Certainly, but then why deprive them of a weekend of celebration?
The decision to loosen the noose began to germinate over the past weekend, assured an Elysee adviser in our columns on Thursday.
“We could see that the mask outside, with the hot weather, it became unbearable for people.
And then with the Euro football and the crowded terraces until 11 pm, it was going to be hellish to manage.
We have already seen it with the episode of the Nadal-Djokovic match at Roland Garros.
"
Read also End of wearing a mask outdoors and curfew: how Macron decided to lift the constraints
The next match of the France team being scheduled for Saturday, it would be tempting to imagine that the executive wanted to spare themselves an evening that was a little too festive and potentially at risk from a health point of view.
But the Elysée, contacted by Le Parisien, insists on another explanation.
"Unlike the measure on the wearing of the compulsory mask, which can be changed easily, the end of the curfew requires more organization," said the communications secretariat of the presidential palace.
"It is not the same level of measures," he continues.
The return to normal hours, for example, requires companies to adapt in order to distribute their employees.
"
A link with the regional elections?
To see there a link with the electoral deadline of Sunday would also be erroneous, assures the Elysee: “The correspondence between the date chosen to put an end to the curfew and that of the regional elections is a pure coincidence. "A happy coincidence all the same, for a Macronist deputy:" Can you imagine polling stations in large cities with counting not yet completed at 11 pm? It would have been a mess. "
It remains to be seen whether the curfew is gone for good. "The health indicators are quite positive, but with about fifty deaths per day, the situation is not as good as in England, even if the English now show a bad dynamic and maintain their restrictions", warns Catherine Hill. "Faced with variants, we do not sequence enough", she also warns. And if a fourth wave advances, as many specialists fear, these three days of delay will not weigh heavily.