He didn't use an understatement.
This time, Emmanuel Macron uttered the word: “Couvre-feu”.
It is explicit, from this Saturday, and for at least four weeks (six, if he obtains the agreement of Parliament), from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., life will resume (with certificates and fines at 135 euros for offenders) such as during confinement in Ile-de-France and in eight metropolises.
During his interview on TF 1 and France 2 on Wednesday evening, the president listed them all: Lille, Grenoble, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Montpellier, Rouen, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne.
So many cities that will no longer be parties, but will live to the rhythm of the triptych, metro, work, sleep.
Without the metro two to three days a week - he strongly recommended it - when teleworking is possible.
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"The objective is to be able to continue to have an economic life, so that schools, high schools, universities are open, so that our fellow citizens can work completely normally and that there may be a social life but reduce its roughness, ”he argues.
A general reconfinement of the country would be, he believes, "disproportionate".
And, it is a fact heard at the top of the State.
Jean Castex had also reminded the ministers meeting Tuesday evening in Matignon, reports a participant, "the Covid kills, but confinement also kills".
60% of clusters, that means 10% of identified contaminations.
You confuse clusters and diagnostics.
Too bad to argue at a time when we want to preserve education, safeguard jobs, and fight effectively against this epidemic in the interest of the French.
https://t.co/CWw5JFQpNZ
- Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) October 14, 2020
In the viewfinder this fall, family or friendly events, which is "the spice of life" as a minister says, but also the bed of the virus.
A point disputed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from Wednesday evening - "60% of contaminations take place at work or at school or at the university […] welcome in Absurdity", tweeted the leader of La France insoumise .
Before the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, responds by pointing to a confusion between “clusters” and “diagnoses”.
Departures on vacation will not be canceled, travel between regions will not be restricted.
But the French are invited to "discipline" by limiting private meetings to six guests.
Wearing the mask at home is also recommended.
We would not have finished with the virus "at least until the summer of 2021"
"We learned from the first wave", assures Emmanuel Macron, judging from the same movement that the country was going through "a second" and would not have finished with the virus "at least until the summer of 2021".
Understood too, that the message had to be clear.
No additional speech this Wednesday evening.
Unlike this March 16, where we saw the then Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, intervene after the president to explain (and at the same time pronounce the word) what confinement would be.
Admittedly, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, will hold a press conference this Thursday afternoon.
But, surrounded by ministers Olivier Véran (Health), Gérald Darmanin (Interior), Elisabeth Borne (Work) and Bruno Le Maire (Economy), it will be a question of delivering the details of the measures announced.
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Covid-19: curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in Ile-de-France and in 8 metropolises, from Saturday
No martial expression, like "we are at war".
As if the term "curfew" was sufficiently evocative in the collective imagination, to mean that "the hour is serious" - it was one of the objectives of the Head of State.
Emmanuel Macron gives concrete, so far as to explain that it will be possible to dine outside until the fateful limit of 9 pm, “if you live next to the restaurant”.
Or that we cannot “ventilate regularly” too much.
Agreeing that the first version of the StopCovid application was not a success, he also delivers in great detail the specifications for the new version.
As well as its new name, “All anti-Covid”.
The president acknowledges that a curfew is “binding”.
Tuesday evening in Matignon, the introduction of the measure was also debated, ministers worried about its "acceptability", the risk of social divide or the consequences for the world of culture.
"What emerges is that the French are fed up", confides a participant, while a government adviser does not hide being "afraid" of their reaction.
In response, the president calls for cohesion.
"I need each of you, we need each other," he says, asking in passing that "in the land of the Enlightenment and the Pastor, we stop having permanent debates on scientific truth ”.
Advanced objective, "to protect the oldest, the most vulnerable, the most precarious, our health system, our caregivers".
Even if it costs, especially to young people. “It's hard to be 20 years old in 2020,” he agrees. "We are in the process of relearning to be fully a Nation", he judges, assuring that "we will come out stronger, because we will be more united". That the "we will get by together". This fall, which promises to be gloomy, will tell if his call is heard.