Emmanuel Macron talks this Thursday with the mayors, about deconfinement

Faced with uncertainty about the evolution of the epidemic of coronavirus, the executive multiplies consultations with a view to
deconfinement whose complicated implementation, particularly for schools, concerns local elected officials with whom Emmanuel Macron talks Thursday.

“The management of the crisis will be more and more decentralized and the mayors will be in particular at the maneuver”, explains the Elysée.

Exchanges of the Head of State, by videoconference, with mayors and representatives of their associations including the” AMF (Association of Mayors of France), should relate to the modalities of deconfinement, scheduled to start in less than three weeks, May 11, and the reopening of schools. The second round of municipal elections should also be on the menu.

Mayors concerned about resumption of school

The Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer has already detailed his tracks for a gradual resumption of school on Tuesday. This return, eagerly awaited by many parents since the start of confinement in mid-March, will be spread over three weeks by class level, with groups of 15 students maximum.

But many local elected officials are showing their concerns, with the municipalities in charge of primary schools. “This is a considerable health issue, the smooth running of which relies heavily on the mayors,” stresses the AMF, hoping for cooperation with the Ministry of Education.

Questions related to “wearing masks or disinfecting premises” must be treated as a priority, warns the association, which brings together almost all of the mayors.

The Assembly of Corsica very hostile to the reopening on May 11

The opening of nurseries and schools on May 11 would represent “an unacceptable risk for Corsicans”, estimated for his part Wednesday evening the President of the Corsican Assembly, the independentist Jean-Guy Talamoni, after a meeting in video -conference with the Prime Minister. “As far as we are concerned, tests and masks are two sine qua non conditions for a safe exit from confinement,” he argued in a press release.

On this very sensitive subject, the Academy of Medicine has argued that wearing a splash mask now “Compulsory in public space”.

In New Caledonia, some of the students have resumed lessons, with reduced enrollment, hygiene rules and distance instructions. At the Lapérouse high school in Nouméa, some teachers wear masks “but they have to articulate well, otherwise we don’t understand,” laughs Swell, a student in Terminal S.

A first version given to Matignon on the deconfinement plan

President Emmanuel Macron delivered on Wednesday, during a trip to Brittany to greet the food industry, some clues to the future deconfinement plan by evoking different measures “depending on the sectors of activity or according to the regions”.

The ministers concerned handed Matignon a first version of their sectoral plans on Wednesday, which will be integrated by the end of the month into a global project looking like a puzzle.

No specific indication at this stage. Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye even declined to comment on press reports of a possible reopening of restaurants, cafes and bars on June 15 or the continued restriction of interregional travel for the time being.

A still uncertain health context

More generally, the health context still remains uncertain, while the new coronavirus is not about to be defeated, warned on Wednesday the World Health Organization. The balance sheet remains high with 21,340 deaths in France, 544 more in 24 hours, even if the number of patients in intensive care has been falling for two weeks. And first three deaths from the new coronavirus have been recorded in Cantal, a department so far spared.

It is still “a massive, severe epidemic,” recalled the Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, who will be heard on Thursday by the Covid-19 mission from the National Assembly.

And, according to estimates from the Institut Pasteur, only 6% of French people will have been infected with the coronavirus on May 11. Far too little, according to specialists, to avoid a second epidemic wave if all measures were fully lifted after this date.

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