In France, decisions relating to the management of the epidemic are taken in an ultra-centralized manner. According to the government and its supporters, this centralization is justified by the urgency of the situation: to contain the spread of Sars-CoV-2, rapid reactions are necessary and cannot be encumbered with contradictory debates. However, the methods of government in times of health crisis adopted in other countries tend to show that, on the contrary, respect for ordinary law and checks and balances leads to better control of the pandemic.
It is no longer a secret: in France, the restriction of freedom of movement is decided by the Defense Council, a special council convened at the discretion of the President of the Republic and initially designed to cover with the necessary confidentiality the reflections relating to sensitive military issues. It is therefore strange practice to summon it for the management of a health crisis, which the war rhetoric used by government communication cannot fully justify.
The state of health emergency also allows the executive to keep the National Assembly, the supreme body of the legislative power, at a distance from decisions relating to the management of the pandemic. Perhaps he considers her too busy debating priority topics in his eyes,
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