Reconfinement: Macron and the specter of civil disobedience

After months of restrictions of all kinds, would the French support a third confinement?

Around the president, some are starting to seriously ask the question.

“From a health point of view, if everyone could stay at home, that would be great.

But from a political point of view, we are on slippery ground, believes the former Minister of the Interior and president of the LREM group in the Assembly Christophe Castaner.

The risk in closing the country is the civil disobedience of some.

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Disobedience… The word is out.

"If we tell people not to go out but they go out anyway, we will be disarmed," recognizes a minister.

Today, no one would agree to a full re-containment, unless there are thousands of deaths every day.

“During the breakfast of the majority, this Tuesday morning in Matignon, Jean Castex did not dodge the problem.

The Prime Minister "reiterated that decisions would be taken on a ridge line between the possible urgency given the variant and the acceptability of the situation", reports a participant.

Public opinion is being severely tested.

Disgruntled restaurateurs, independents who walk in circles, students reclusive at home, parents anxious at the idea that schools are closing: disarray is gaining ground.

In the government, several heavyweights have sounded the alarm such as Jean-Michel Blanquer and Bruno Le Maire.

The growing weariness of part of the population could dissuade the power from initiating preventive containment, as long as the effect of the generalized curfew at 6 p.m. is not clearly known.

We will have to wait until this weekend to have reliable figures.

"A whole section of our society that can change ... and become radicalized"

"People can go wild if we let them think that we are going to close schools, loose a government adviser.

They will remember the doors that slam in the face of their children, during the first confinement.

“In a country marked by the yellow vests crisis, a drop of water can overflow an already chipped vase, fear some elected officials.

“A whole section of our society that can change… and become radicalized, fears an LREM parliamentarian.

We are not in an embolism of the hospital system, despite the 22,000 cases per day, it can hold.

And so we can still wait before considering confinement.

It is a questioning that the president himself carries.

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In this context, the scenes of violence in the Netherlands against government decisions did not go unnoticed.

"We are talking about a country that had not confined until now, of a very liberal tradition, relativizes a weighty adviser.

In our region, people respected the wearing of masks and generally understood the restrictive measures.

Still, the variants pose a dark threat to the future.

And on the morale of the French, in a society undermined by mistrust.

“The danger is people who rebel and who simply refuse to submit to the new restrictions because they consider that they have nothing more to lose, worries a close friend of the Head of State.

We must be careful.

If hairdressers decide to stay open for example, what do we do?

We send lots of little Gérald Darmanin to tell them to stay closed?

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