"Again, it's a bet", blurted out a faithful Emmanuel Macron, before recovering: "No, it is a fierce will.
He wants to open at all costs.
" A bet ?
The term is banned by the president's entourage, although he has decided to maintain the schedule set out in his speech on March 31, despite the fragile decline of the epidemic.
On the eve of this return to nursery school and primary school, the start of a gradual deconfinement, everyone agrees to say it behind the scenes: "We must not miss.
"
After the series of past hiccups, criticism of the vaccine strategy is still strong, the executive has no room for error.
With a double risk.
That of an epidemic recovery, and that of the lack of clarity or cascading class closings.
“Today, we are in a subtle, dangerous balance, where people must not lose their morale and where we must remain vigilant.
We must keep the prospects of reopening, but tell the truth: it will go even more slowly than last year, ”analyzes the president of the MoDem group in the Assembly, Patrick Mignola.
Avoid remote school bugs
The executive is walking on eggshells.
"We all have our eyes on next week," says a Macronist.
We throw a coin in the air.
We don't know what the comeback will be in terms of the viral situation.
The Elysee also wishes to emphasize the "very strict" nature of the protocols.
And the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, is preparing to "follow from day to day the number of class closures and the territories concerned, to see how this is developing", argues his entourage.
Strengthening screening in schools is not the least of the challenges.
And beware, for middle and high school students, to connection problems, which had plagued the remote school in early April.
“The Prime Minister, like the French, would not understand that there are bugs this time around.
There were two weeks to prepare, ”warns those around him.
Read also Jean-Michel Blanquer: "I would rather have to close 1% of classes than 100% of schools"
A "message of firmness" passed by Jean Castex during a meeting to prepare for the start of the new school year, Monday, April 19, with Jean-Michel Blanquer and Olivier Véran (Health), coupled with "a message of pragmatism on the resumption of classes in physics insofar as we know that it will not be obvious, ”the same source continues.
Under pressure Blank?
"This is the seventh re-entry of this type since the start of the Covid", recalls the rue de Grenelle, insisting on "the importance of going to school for psychological and social reasons" - point hammered relentlessly at the top of State.
An "educational priority" (the Elysée, dixit) that Emmanuel Macron intends to highlight this Monday by going to a school in Melun (Seine-et-Marne). New proof that he definitely intends to make it a personal marker. No room for error, therefore. This is the flip side of voluntarism, praised by its supporters.