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Patrol in Paris (symbol picture):
Photo: THOMAS COEX / AFP
Good food has a special status in France, but because of the corona pandemic, the restaurants in the republic have been closed since October.
Now wealthy French have apparently found a way to dine appropriately anyway - in illegal Corona restaurants.
In the middle of the affair about the so-called "Corona dinners", in which members of the government allegedly also took part, the police have now exposed two secret restaurants.
In Paris, she arrested the manager of an "underground restaurant" who, despite the closure due to the pandemic, had secretly offered food.
The organizer of the dinner was also arrested and the 110 guests had to pay a fine.
Hours earlier, police officers prematurely ended lunch in another secret restaurant in Saint-Ouen on the outskirts of Paris.
According to the broadcaster BFMTV and the police, the operator was arrested and the 62 guests also fined.
The so-called underground restaurants for the wealthy in France have been making headlines since a report by the private television broadcaster M6 about alleged secret luxury food.
Pictures showed, among other things, a secret restaurant in which neither the waitress nor the unrecognizable guests wore masks.
In the TV report, the owner of the "Palais Vivienne" venue, Pierre-Jean Chalençon, as one of the organizers, initially reported anonymously about the evenings and claimed to have met members of the government in several secret restaurants.
In the meantime he speaks of an "April Fool's joke".
After the report, the judiciary began an investigation.
On Friday, Chalençon and the well-known celebrity chef Christophe Leroy were questioned by investigators.
According to the public prosecutor's office, however, it has not yet been possible to prove that ministers have participated in illegal dinners.
Still, President Emmanuel Macron called on all attendees at the week's cabinet meeting to "be exemplary," according to a government spokesman.
mic / afp