"The beast is fine. It was Thursday, March 12, a text response from the taulier of Communist deputies, André Chassaigne. He was talking about him, of course. And not coronavirus, which we had just learned that he had contracted it. A few days later, the deputy for Puy-de-Dôme, 69, still has a dashing mustache. In forced confinement, it still swirls in all directions, much to the chagrin of his relatives. "At one point, I had to hide to make phone calls ..." smiled the Auvergnat at the end of the phone. But he does not perore: "I had a night of severe flu, quite intense aches. There, the symptoms disappeared, but I still feel tired. "
Like a good part of the eighteen deputies who are known to have been infected, he believes he has loaded the coronavirus at the refreshment bar of the Assembly, the infectious center of the Palais Bourbon. Five days of isolation at the Clermont-Ferrand CHU - at that time not engorged - then a return home. He chained videoconferences with Matignon, the group presidents of the Assembly, his communist colleagues. "Elected officials like me, we have a disease which is the continual addiction to work", he says, also claiming to be "very sought after locally". It is a question of bringing up the “situations” which appear on the ground, concerning the farmers, in particular.
At the top of the state too, we felt a fever. Thus the Minister of Culture Franck Riester - a coup de la refreshment, again - or the Secretary of State for the Energy Transition, Brune Poirson. Riester still has symptoms, "like flu, cough," says his entourage. He “modulates” his day, between remote work and rest. Video conferences, "a lot of WhatsApp", the machine must continue to run, the culture community is hit hard by the crisis. The state of health of her colleague Poirson is "not worrying", we are told, and contact with her office - "several phone calls a day" - is never broken.
Local elected officials also very much in demand
In this crisis, mayors are also in great demand to help workers on the front line. As in Caen, or in Nice, where Christian Estrosi was declared positive. "I lived from the first days a bit rough [...], there were times when you had to clench your fists, but I feel that I have entered a phase of improvement," said Thursday Estrosi, 64 , in Nice-Matin.
"He manages the crisis remotely," says a close collaborator, also suffering from symptoms. Between “Skype meetings” with his office, phone calls to the prefect to ensure that the local hospitals are equipped with masks. Others were distributed to police, gendarmes, and transport personnel. Estrosi is alarmed that "people go out too much" in Nice, putting others in danger. In Marseille, several LR officials were diagnosed positive, including the mayor candidate Martine Vassal - asymptomatic, but confined. So the boss of the department and the metropolis turns the machine, also from a distance.
To the Republicans, we try to relieve the president, Christian Jacob, also reached by the Covid-19 and convalescent. "We are trying to save him, he still got a high fever, he needs to rest," said a member of the party leadership a few days ago. At least six LR MPs contracted the disease, most of it mild. The elected representative of Haut-Rhin Jean-Luc Reitzer is however still hospitalized. Some of their colleagues have taken the road - carefully - to the Palais Bourbon, or to the Senate. The crisis is still far from over.