COMMENT. Confined again, the French must show good citizenship

The wave is too high. Not only in France but all over Europe. The number of patients hospitalized in intensive care too high. And health too precious not to react. The President of the Republic has therefore decided. France will therefore be confined again, until at least December 1. Now remains to be convinced. The debate in Parliament promises to be tough.

Nothing is easy in the face of a virus that defies all forecasts. This is both to stem the progression of the pandemic but also to avoid an economic and social crash. This decision is therefore matched multiple exceptions to keep businesses in operation and allow children to continue in school. For traders and restaurateurs condemned to once again lower the curtain, the pill is bitter and its acceptability is uncertain.

Live without knowing what tomorrow will bring

Live without knowing what tomorrow will bring. Uncertainty is the hardest torment of all, said Alfred de Musset already in the 19th century. For a few weeks and perhaps a few months, you will have to deal with multiple unknowns. The most recent advances in vaccine development, however, give cause for optimism. By summer, hopes Emmanuel Macron.

Beyond this crucial issue of vaccines but also the social management of this pandemic, it is also the future of the old continent that is at stake. This singular crisis could be the matrix of a new world. In a prophetic book, East of the world, and published in 1983, Gilles Etrillard and François Sureau predicted the rise of Asian economies.

No historical law imposes a change of the world in which Europe capsizes. We must first make the real diagnoses […] bring France back to the path of progress, mobilize the initiative and responsibility of the French, hoped Raymond Barre in the preface to this book. More than ever, coordination promises to be essential at European level.

Rediscover the sense of the collective

But this battle cannot be won without rediscovering a sense of the collective. Understand all the issues. Everything is here. And that is one of the lessons to be learned from this crisis. By their sense of discipline inherited from Confucian culture, the use of tracing and systematic testing, Asian countries have taught France and more generally to old Europe a lesson.

The worst would be to tear themselves apart. There were some shortcomings. The report devoted to the management of this crisis in the spring, directed by General Lizurey, ex-number one of the gendarmerie and unveiled in the latest edition of Le Canard enchaîné underlines the multiple dysfunctions in French governance. Highlighting, once again, the need for France to tackle state reform in order to become more efficient. Why not, for example, from the outset mobilized veterinary medicine and its laboratories? They have the experience of managing viruses and the know-how to perform large-scale tests. More broadly, stewardship has often been lacking. The lessons have been learned promises Emmanuel Macron. Its credibility is at stake.

The French, in the big cities and more particularly in Paris, also have their share of responsibility. Some thought the crisis was over. We enter it. Not only in terms of health but also economically. All the more reason to keep a cool head. And show solidarity by agreeing to comply with these new constraints.

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