EPIDEMIC: The mayor of Nice has decided to reduce the limit of 5,000 people imposed by the government in the context of the Coronavirus Covid-19 health crisis
Nice will lower to 2,500 people the maximum limit of people at authorized events, against 5,000, until the 15th August, announced on Monday the mayor Les Républicains Christian Estrosi, after having met the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
“The irresponsibility of some questions the safety of everyone,” said Christian Estrosi during a press briefing, after the controversy aroused by the compact crowd gathered on the Promenade des Anglais on Saturday for a free concert.
Nice, quai des Etats-Unis et promenade des Anglais ce samedi soir pour le concert de @TheAvenerMusic #nice06 pic.twitter.com/57pGQinKGL
— Matthias Galante (@Matthiasgalante) July 11, 2020
“Systematically mandatory” mask
Accused by his detractors of having allowed the seaside to transform into a giant nightclub, after having nevertheless multiplied the measures against the virus during confinement, Estrosi counter-attacked: “Where the government has set rules for 5,000 people, I decided that it would be 2,500 for my city and that the wearing of the mask would be systematically obligatory because the recommendation of the mask alone is not sufficient ”.
“It will be like this all summer,” he said, before nuancing and announcing a milestone on August 15 according to the evolution of the epidemic. On August 29th, Nice will host one of the few planetary events that survived this period with the start of the Tour de France, which usually attracts crowds and whose city awaits significant spinoffs.
Darmanin invites to “be a citizen”
Christian Estrosi had just met with the new Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who cleared the municipality entirely, organizer of this electro concert by Nice DJ The Avener: “Things were done in connection with the State, which authorized the demonstration, and at no time during the evening did things go beyond the framework authorized by the State ”.
But “regardless of the mayors and regardless of the state, it is up to each and everyone to have the right gestures, you have to be a citizen,” insisted the minister, refusing to comment on the compulsory wearing of the mask: “There wear the mask as much as possible. (…) If everyone had the opportunity to keep (the) barrier gestures, if everyone did something for their country, then things would probably be simpler ”.
Christian Estrosi had already tried to make the wearing of the mask mandatory in Nice in public space, via a decree issued on May 7. But he had to back off on May 11, the day of the deconfinement, with a new decree only imposing the wearing of a mask when the rules of social distancing are not applicable.
