The summer parenthesis is closing. Back to the coronavirus crisis. While the Prime Minister was due to present his recovery plan for post-Covid France to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, the President of the Republic preferred to postpone the announcement for a week. Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex agreed on Friday during a working meeting at Fort Brégançon, before the head of state's return to Paris. " Presenting a plan of this magnitude means immediately initiating meetings, trips with the actors, so that the field takes ownership of it ," explained government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Sunday in Le Parisien. But next week should be devoted to the end of the start of the school year marked by new health measures of magnitude . "
Instead of the presentation of the recovery plan, Emmanuel Macron will chair a Defense Council on Tuesday to take stock of the evolution of the epidemic and the various health protocols put in place in companies, schools, transport but also for sporting or cultural events. Measures which will also be on the program of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, before being explained and detailed to the French, probably by Prime Minister Jean Castex.
"We do not forbid anything"
The return of employees to major cities, and therefore to transport, and especially the return of students to schools, colleges and high schools poses the threat of an acceleration of the epidemic. Especially after school holidays marked, in many regions, by a relaxation of vigilance measures against the coronavirus.
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" After three months of decline in the circulation of the virus, there has been a clear increase for five weeks, globally, and actively in certain territories ", warned the Minister of Health Olivier Véran in the JDD . On Saturday, health authorities recorded 3,602 new positive diagnoses, following on from last week's figures: 4,771 new cases on Thursday and 4,586 on Friday. It's a trend. For now, it does not result in an influx of patients in intensive care units, but hospital staff are already under pressure.
The challenges of this new school year are numerous. With the Prime Minister, our roadmap is clear: overcome the crisis, continue the action undertaken with the French
Emmanuel MacronBack at the Elysee Palace, Emmanuel Macron therefore finds himself confronted, as in March, with the threat of the epidemic. But no question of returning to generalized confinement. " We are not going to shut down our countries, but we will have to live with the virus, making sure that it does not spread faster and that it does not affect the elderly, who are the most fragile ”, warned the President of the Republic last week when he received German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Fort Brégançon. Emmanuel Macron does not, however, rule out the possibility of resorting to targeted reconfigurations " if the situation required it". The executive hopes that the use of barrier gestures - masks, distancing, freezing - will slow the circulation of the virus so as not to end up in the situation of March, when hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of sick.
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" We do not forbid anything , warned Emmanuel Macron Thursday in an interview with Paris Match . What we want to avoid is to be overwhelmed (…) But we cannot bring the country to a standstill, because the collateral damage of confinement is considerable ”.
More than three months after the end of confinement, the head of state can measure the cataclysmic consequences for the economy. In the second quarter of the year, gross domestic product collapsed 13.8%, after already dropping 5.9% in the first quarter. The first consequences have started to appear with the proliferation of social plans, but the worst is yet to come.
Historic recession
In an attempt to thwart this historic recession, Emmanuel Macron asked his government to prepare an unprecedented recovery plan of 100 billion euros. It is now in the first week of September that the Prime Minister must present it to the Council of Ministers, once the start of the school year. Last week, teachers' unions asked to postpone it for a week to learn about the new health protocol. Request rejected by the Minister of Education. This is " not a hypothesis ", ruled Jean-Michel Blanquer, excluding a month of September when parents would have to juggle children at home and their work. " The protocol drawn up in July ensures protection and education for all, " he added.
" The challenges of this return are numerous," Emmanuel Macron underlined on Friday before his interview with Jean Castex . With the Prime Minister, our roadmap is clear: overcome the crisis, continue the action undertaken with the French . ” As if summer had only been a parenthesis in the coronavirus crisis.