We were expecting it on television, finally it is to the readers of Le Parisien and the regional daily press that Emmanuel Macron has chosen to unveil his plan to reopen the country.
An interview carried out in the village hall of the Elysée, Wednesday early evening, and which will be published Friday morning in our newspaper.
On March 31, you announced a gradual return to normal from mid-May.
What's your schedule?
EMMANUEL MACRON.
Stage zero was the reopening of schools on April 26. We have assumed this educational priority and this strategy of living with the virus, including in the face of a high level of incidence, higher than that of our neighbors. We will then open in four stages. May 3, end of certificates and travel restrictions. May 19, curfew pushed back to 9 p.m. and reopening of shops, terraces and museums, cinemas and theaters with limited gauges. From May 19, we must rediscover our French art of living, while remaining careful and responsible: our conviviality, our culture, sport ... June 9, curfew at 11 pm and opening of cafes, restaurants and rooms sport. Finally on June 30, end of the curfew.
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The idea of deconfining by territory is therefore abandoned?
I am hopeful that the whole of France will be able to move on to the stage of May 19.
The measures will be national, but we will be able to activate health “emergency brakes” in the territories where the virus circulates too much.
At present, there are ten departments in which the incidence exceeds 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
According to what criteria will these brakes be triggered?
They will apply in a metropolis or a department according to three criteria: the incidence rate which would again exceed 400 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, a very sudden increase in this rate and a threat of saturation of intensive care services.
If this happens, the government, in consultation with the prefects and local communities, will block the reopening.
In October, you set the deconfinement threshold at 5,000 cases per day, it is now over 30,000. Are the conditions really met to win this new bet?
I have never made a bet on the health and safety of our fellow citizens.
I assume that I have made choices, but these are not bets.
That would imply that it would be adventurous.
No.
We have been enlightened by science and we have chosen to put people above all else.
In humans, there is not only health management but also everything that makes the lives of women and men.
The life of the Nation is not reduced to the evolution of curves.
I have to look at the consequence of closing a school, when a child will not have a meal a day;
or the consequence when a business is asked to close for several weeks.
I know their distress today.
We have to take all of this into account.
What changed ?
The big difference with the month of October is that today we have a vaccine that gives a perspective of a lasting exit from the crisis.
We have seen the effectiveness of the curfew - crossed with the arrival of the vaccine in January.
It is a real change in the management of the epidemic.
Will you make telecommuting more flexible?
Teleworking will be made more flexible from June 9, in conjunction with the social partners at company level.
More broadly, what I have presented to you today is a project which will be the subject, from Monday, of a major phase of consultation at three levels: with parliamentarians, with all the social partners. and professionals and with elected representatives of the territories.
At the end, the plan will be presented in detail by the Prime Minister during the week of May 10.
How will the health pass work? Is there not a risk of a two-tier health society with the vaccinated and the others?
I really care about the unity of the Nation. In terms of health, each innovation has been accessible to all. The tests are free in France. Very few countries are in this situation. We didn't leave anyone by the side of the road. The Republic and the Welfare State were there. The “whatever it costs” is also that. The health pass will never be a right of access that differentiates the French. It should not be compulsory to access places of everyday life such as restaurants, theaters and cinemas, or to visit friends. On the other hand, in places where crowds mingle, such as stadiums, festivals, fairs or exhibitions, it would be absurd not to use it. As our public freedoms are at stake, Parliament will take up the matter. The debate must be open. This pass, which will be paper or digital,Via the TousAntiCovid application, it will be possible to show that one has been vaccinated or tested negative in the two preceding days. It is fair and it will not fracture the country. This will be an additional tool to ensure the protection of the French.
Will the formula you are presenting to us make it possible to no longer resort to confinements?
It is my strongest wish, and it does not date from today ... But can I tell you, eye to eye, that we will never be overwhelmed by this virus again?
It's impossible.
It seems that the vaccines we have are effective against variants, but you can see that we are discovering new forms every week.
We must therefore remain vigilant.
Now, our fight is to vaccinate as quickly as possible to increase our collective immunity.
This must obviously be done in Europe, but also by helping Africa and the poorest countries.
It is not just solidarity, it is also efficiency.
That is to say ?
The only way to prevent new variants from emerging is to allow all countries in the world to move towards a virus eradication strategy.
This is why we, Europeans, are becoming the leading continent in vaccine production.
We left less quickly than our American friends, but we are in the process of making up for lost time.
We will produce 250 million doses on our soil this year.
We Europeans have already ordered 2.5 billion for this year.
We will produce more than 2 billion in 2022-2023 to make any booster shots that we may need, but also to help all our partners to vaccinate their populations and crush the virus in their country.
Do you see the end of the health crisis in 2021?
I do not know.
If there are no new, uncontrolled variants, yes.
Where I am more optimistic is that our best scientists and industrialists say that we would be able, in 80 to 100 days, to provide a vaccine to respond to them.
But maybe we will have to live with the virus for years and get vaccinated again every year.
Are you planning to open vaccination to everyone now?
Not immediately.
We can optimize the operation of our 1,700 vaccination centers.
We will continue to prioritize by age because it is the most effective.
Vaccination of the most vulnerable lowers the pressure on hospital services.
But we have doses in stock.
As of May 1, we are therefore going to open vaccination to all over 18 years of age who are seriously overweight (body mass index greater than 30).
I invite the 2.3 million French people concerned to go to the vaccination centers this weekend.
Will there be a normal bac this year?
Under no circumstances will we have discounted exams and diplomas.
Whether it is the baccalaureate, professional bac, BTS or exams in our universities.
But we have to adapt.
For the baccalaureate, certain tests which were to be held in March are passed in continuous control because of the epidemic.
On the other hand, the two tests which have final examinations, philosophy and the grand oral, will be maintained.
What about the other exams?
For the pro bac, the final exams scheduled for June will be maintained.
Ditto for the BTS, in June, with the part of internship and continuous assessment planned, but we will set up an exceptional remedial session in July.
For all the rest of the superior, the scheduled exams will be held but each time there are sick students, we will allow them to have remedial sessions.
How to get out of aid and “whatever it costs”, without causing too much damage to very weakened sectors?
I fully assume the "whatever the cost". We were right to do so. During the 2008-2010 crisis, France had a recession half as strong as in Germany, but destroyed 7 times more jobs. There we are not destroying any more, because we have protected existing jobs. Unemployment has not exploded, nor bankruptcies. In the coming weeks, we must be very vigilant to support the recovery without creating economic weaknesses. The partial activity system will be kept unchanged in May and June. In May, for those who start to reopen, there will be the same economic aid as in April. From June 1, support will be provided in proportion to the resumption of activity. We will have an appropriate response by sector. It will be hand sewn. Here again, we will do so in a concerted framework with the social partners.
The 750 billion euros promised by Europe will not arrive before September.
France will take over the presidency of the European Commission next year.
Are you going to take initiatives to streamline the European decision-making system?
Our procedures are too slow and too bureaucratic.
At the heart of the French presidency will be the desire to reform our institutions to make them more efficient and faster.
My job in the coming months is also to do everything to simplify procedures in France.
How? 'Or' What ?
From the beginning of June, thanks to the return to a life as normal as possible, I want to resume my pilgrim staff and go to the territories to take the pulse of the country.
Are you going to have a great national debate again?
I want, in conjunction with the mayors and living forces of the Nation, to invent a second phase of the revival.
It will have to go through a drastic simplification and an acceleration of investments.
The health crisis has revealed a certain industrial downgrading ...
For decades, we have held a patriotic discourse, without the means. If there is no research, if there is no investment to create factories, there is no more industry. For four years, we have lowered the cost of capital and the tax on productive investment. Fortunately, we have reduced taxes, including by removing the anti-production part of the ISF! Our country discouraged investment. It also discouraged work and that's why I lowered the income tax, increased the activity bonus. Ah, I have heard about these subjects from the patriots with small feet! Those who tell you: you have to build factories in France, but explain to you that successful people must be taxed, while France is already one of the countries in Europe where taxation is the highest.We were right to stop this aberration which led our entrepreneurs to settle abroad; we should have done 10 or 15 years earlier. Unfortunately, we have fully experienced the absurdity of an economic model that no longer existed. We will take a decade to rebuild the industrial fabric.
The United States is preparing a $ 1 trillion plan.
They inject more money than us?
When we compare ourselves with the Biden plan, we must also take into account our entire social model, starting with social minima and partial activity.
When we add the stimulus plan, France is devoting 20% of GDP to the crisis.
The same proportions as in the United States, which does not have our solidarity system.
Joe Biden is going to tax the money that sleeps among the richest.
Is it a solution?
This Covid debt will have to be repaid and we will also have to assume investments for the future and balance the day-to-day functioning of the country.
But as long as I am here, there will be no tax increases when the crisis is over.
We are already one of the most heavily taxed countries in the world.
There can be no industrial sovereignty without lower taxes on production.
For four years, we have lowered the contribution of the popular and middle classes (100 euros of purchasing power gain for an employee with the minimum wage).
The Nation must resume the course of modernization reforms.
This process cannot stop.
So you are going to reform to the end?
Until the last quarter of an hour.
Over the past 20 years, we have fallen too far behind.
Reforming, transforming, investing, these are the conditions for defending our social model, what we French people are.
In December, you cast doubt on your candidacy for a second term.
Has this crisis reinforced this doubt or has it made it recede?
I go to bed with my doubts and wake up with reforged convictions. I will be very untimely to tell you about my personal ambitions. In the management of a country, one should not commit a lack of time. We have a new French decade to build, which will be the decade of our youth. If I have an ambition, this is it. This is because we can together, through this great consultation that I want to do in the summer, turn the page on this moment in the life of the Nation. My individual destiny does not exist if we do not arrive there, no individual destiny is worth outside of a collective project.