The head of state is due to speak on Monday 13th April 2020, shortly after 8 pm. Among the announcements expected is that of the extension of the confinement by several weeks.
The French await Monday announcements of Emmanuel Macron, who should extend the confinement in France by several weeks and mean that the fight against the Coronavirus Covid-19 is far from being mastered, despite the rather encouraging figures of this long Easter weekend.
The head of state, who must speak shortly after 8 pm, plans, according to his entourage, to extend beyond May 10th the confinement to which France has been subjected since March 16th.
“Progressive” deconfinement?
The coronavirus epidemic has killed 14,393 people in France, including more than 9,000 in hospitals, according to figures released Sunday by the Directorate General of Health. This represents an additional 315 deaths in the last 24 hours in the hospitals. A figure down, after a peak at 605 dead Monday – the highest level recorded so far in France.
For the fourth consecutive day, the number of resuscitation patients also decreased in 24 hours, but “by only 35 patients, this is a very slight decrease”, specifies the DGS.
For his fourth solemn speech eagerly awaited since the start of the health crisis, Emmanuel Macron “should evoke an end date of confinement in May, at least after the extended holiday weekend of May 8th – 10th,” according to several of his aides.
“A date sufficiently distant for us to understand that we will then be able to begin a beginning of partial deconfinement, but extremely progressive”, but also “close enough to sketch France according to”, it is argued in the entourage of the head of state.
“Extremely deep” crisis
“The hour of confinement will last,” for his part had warned on Tuesday Prime Minister Edouard Philippe , preparing public opinion for its extension.
Emmanuel Macron is also expected on the method he intends to implement to restart the country after the confinement, while he is certain that the return to normalcy will not be immediate. No question, for example, of immediately reopening shops and schools.
“We are starting to understand today that the end of confinement will not be a return to normal,” explained Sunday on France Inter Stanislas Guerini, the general delegate of La République en Marche, as if to prepare the spirits:
“We must not project ourselves too quickly into the next day. For many months we are entering an extremely deep crisis.”
The head of state also knows that he must defuse a growing distrust of his management of the crisis. A distrust fanned, according to polling institutes, by the floating around the management of protective masks. Public opinion criticizes, in particular, the position of the executive against their generalization and its ability to import the promised masks.
Read also: Covid-19: will the elderly be confined until the end of 2020 in Europe?
“Willingness to assemble”
As with each of his previous speeches since March 12, Emmanuel Macron could also in conclusion, draw more precisely his projects for “the day after”, including the new priorities that will shape the last two years of his five-year term.
The head of state postponed his speech to Monday to take the time to consult with doctors – including Professor Didier Raoult, herald of the treatment with hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19, with whom he spoke almost every day, according to a relative – but also elected representatives, associations and European counterparts.
“On these cumbersome decisions, he has a real desire for union and rallying, by taking opinions directly on the ground,” said a member of his entourage. He still had to meet Sunday and Monday with the presidents of the two assemblies, Gérard Larcher and Richard Ferrand, as well as several mayors from different regions, or even the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Emmanuel Macron should not go on the other hand on very concrete decisions, like the generalized wearing of the mask, the method of tests or the tracing of the patients, on which he generally, he lets the Prime Minister or the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
Closing borders, a subject of contention
Another subject on which it is expected: the question of closing national or EU borders, even if it will be on the menu for a virtual European summit at the end of April.
The opposition has multiplied its criticism of the management of the crisis. The LR Eric Ciotti MP said he was “angry” that has “let die our old” Covid of-19 in accommodation for dependent elderly (nursing home). And Marine Le Pen (RN) denounced “the inertia of a real bureaucracy that makes you feel that nothing is going forward”.
The figures announced Sunday evening translate, according to the Directorate General of Health, “the beginning of a very high plateau”.
“The epidemic continues in our country in a dynamic way and continues to strike hard”, “we must remain vigilant because the hospital and intensive care services take care of a very large number of patients”, she insists, while France still has 6,845 serious cases.
