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The restaurants in France have been officially closed since October 2020
Photo: BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
A television report on clandestine luxury dinners despite the corona pandemic is causing a stir in France - and investigations by the judiciary.
In the M6 report, a man who is introduced as the organizer of a secret party says: "I ate in two or three restaurants this week, which are so-called illegal restaurants, with a number of ministers." The Paris prosecutor was in charge on Sunday an investigation.
"The aim of the investigation is to check whether parties were organized in violation of health regulations and to determine who the organizers and participants could have been," it said.
The report, which was broadcast on Friday evening, shows a secret noble restaurant in Paris that has opened despite the Corona measures.
The menu for the evening starts at 160 euros per person.
In France, restaurants were closed at the end of October due to the pandemic.
"People who come here take off their masks," says an unrecognizable employee.
"Once you are through the door here, there is no Covid."
The report also shows a party in a noble establishment, where people also don’t wear masks and do not adhere to rules of distance.
The corona situation in France is extremely tense, and a third nationwide lockdown has been in effect since the weekend.
There are curfews for several weeks, shops and schools are closed.
Under the hashtag #OnVeutLesNoms (We want the names), people on social networks are outraged by the scenes shown.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin called on the police prefecture on Sunday afternoon "to check the accuracy of the reported facts in order, if they are confirmed, to prosecute the organizers and participants of these secret dinners".
The corona situation in France has worsened again significantly.
Hospitals in the greater Paris area in particular are sounding the alarm because the intensive care units are overcrowded.
svs / dpa