Emmanuel Macron acknowledged on Tuesday the “weariness” of teachers and parents of students in the face of successive health protocols in schools, but asked for “patience” while again defending his choice to leave schools open.
“The good choice”
“I fundamentally believe that the choice we made to keep the school open is the right choice,” he said, two days before a call for a strike by teachers against complex protocols communicated at the last moment . “I think we must all arm ourselves with a little patience, kindness, adjust things with pragmatism”, continued Emmanuel Macron, during a press briefing with the President of the European Council Charles Michel.
“The Prime Minister (Jean Castex) announced yesterday a simplification measure which removes certain constraints, in particular to go to pharmacies”, he recalled, while the initial protocol had generated long queues in front of pharmacies to test children repeatedly. “There is no perfect system,” pleaded the head of state, calling for “patience and pragmatism” to “adjust things every time”.
“I know there is sometimes nervousness”
“I know there is weariness. I know there is nervousness sometimes,” he concluded, “but I think our children and our teens are the most important thing” , and that we must “continue to watch over them”. The executive, who is still looking for an exit in the face of the protest at the school, tried to correct the situation Monday evening by sending Jean Castex to 8 p.m. of France 2, to record a marginal relaxation of the protocol for students in contact cases .
Information on families waiting in the cold to obtain a PCR or antigen test led the Prime Minister to decide that now only three self-tests, delivered free and spread over five days, will be sufficient. A measure “of common sense”, praised Tuesday the spokesman of the government Gabriel Attal.