Covid-19: the opposition wind up against new “punitive” and “ridiculous” measures

Another tightening of screws that does not pass in the opposition. To curb the outbreak of Covid-19 in France, driven by the very contagious variant Omicron, the government announced on Monday the return of health restrictions in the coming days, including for those vaccinated. An incomprehensible initiative in the eyes of several opposition leaders, starting with Marine Le Pen who quickly castigated “punitive measures that make no sense”.

“How can we accept such ridiculous measures as the ban on dancing, drinking while standing, eating on a train or the obligation to wear a mask in the street?”, she asks. “We promised [aux Français] return to normal life with the vaccine. Today they live under the constant threat of new restrictions “, denounced candidate RN in the presidential election, calling for “take common sense measures”, like “recall suspended caregivers (and) reopen closed beds”. The elected far-right also asked to “renounce the health / vaccination pass”.

For his part, his competitor to the right of the right, Eric Zemmour has chosen irony to dismantle the health policy “crazy” of the executive. “No standing coffee, no popcorn in the cinema, no crisps on the train: the government’s new health policy is even crazier than the old one”, mocked the former polemicist on Twitter. “Let’s stop sailing on sight and finally move on to long-term management of the epidemic”, claimed Zemmour.

At the same time, the LFI deputy, Eric Coquerel, estimated “that the executive is reduced to commenting on the viral wave without coherence and as a bonus weakening the rule of law”, “for lack of anticipation”, according to him, this new wave of Covid-19. His colleague Aurélien Taché, ex-LREM deputy for Val-d’Oise, denounced him “the choice of coercion” made by the executive “with his vaccine pass”, “rather than strengthening access and education for vaccination”.

In addition, Fabien Gay, PCF senator, was also sorry for the direction taken by the presidential majority on social networks. “No more coffee at the counter, popcorn at the cinema, standing concert, mask outside, teleworking, Vaccine Pass, possibility of a 4th dose … But not a word on the reopening of beds, free tests, lifting of patents to accelerate the vaccination of Humanity “, he pointed out.

In addition to the vaccine pass project, which will soon be debated in parliament, Jean Castex and Olivier Véran announced on Monday the return of the gauges during large gatherings (2,000 people maximum indoors, 5,000 outdoors). Likewise, teleworking is once again deployed on a large scale in the country, at a rate of at least three days per week for the professions which are eligible for it. Consumption and standing concerts are also prohibited “from Monday and for a period of three weeksThe same goes for catering for transport or in cinemas.