Christophe Castaner has been sounding his optimism about confinement. According to him, the French are the world champions of containment and perfectly respect the rules in force. Sadly, the Minister of the Interior seems to have a slightly too optimistic vision of the situation. The HuffPost reported that in addition to the many images on social networks showing crowded streets or neighborhoods, the police figures speak for themselves.
Thus, the Journal du Dimanche of April 19 makes it clear: Out of more than 14 million checks carried out by the police since the start of confinement, 831 798 people were fined. These figures have doubled in ten days, if one compares it to the first assessment announced on April 6 by Castaner.
“It is wrong to say that things are going well everywhere,” explained the general secretary of the union Alliance Fabien Vanhemelryck to the JDD. The unionist pointed to “sensitive neighborhoods”, especially the Parisian suburbs, where confinement rules are ignored. As an example, he cited in particular the discovery of an inflatable pool full of people in a car park in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis).
The riots that broke out on the night of Sunday, April 19 to Monday, April 20 in several immigrant neighbourhoods also expose the difficulties of some to respect the rules. Areas in at least 25 cities and departments in France erupted into rioting, including attempts to burn down a police station in Strasbourg.
The nerves of French police officers are therefore severely tested in these times of crisis. But paradoxically, the police have been blamed for the transgressions of containment. Human rights organisations massively denounce what they consider to be “police abuse” when officers try to enforce the rules.
Twenty of these organisations have also created a monitoring tool to identify these possible excesses, which range from physical violence to unjustified tickets, reported the JDD.
Meanwhile, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs complained after Chinese officials spoke out against the management of the crisis in France.
Beijing and Paris have been waging a war of words for the last few days. In the last salvo to date, Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday, April 20 responded to unfounded Chinese criticism of the management of the health crisis in France, and particularly in nursing homes.
“I cannot accept that the staff of our Ehpad (Accommodation establishments for dependent elderly persons) are slandered by anyone, including the Chinese Embassy. I made it known,” said the Minister, adding: “We intend to be respected as China wants to be.”
On April 12, in an article entitled “Restoring distorted facts – Observations of a Chinese diplomat stationed in Paris,” published on the website of the Chinese Embassy in France, Ehpad staff were accused of having “abandoned their posts overnight […] leaving their residents to die of hunger and disease”.
Jean-Yves Le Drian also summoned the Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, on April 14, to express his “disapproval” to remarks not “consistent with the quality of the bilateral relationship” between France and China, said the foreign ministry. Beijing, for its part, denied any “negative comment on the way France is facing the epidemic”.
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