World News: Coronavirus, Emmanuel Macron’s Strongest Challenger

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Monday, 22 March 2021 18:44

Written by Olivier Longhi

French and Europeans are again subjected to an almost disturbing silence of constraints and restrictions imposed by the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, the unseen enemy that strongarmed Europe with the fierceness of a seasoned warrior.

Between weariness and resignation, obligation and necessity, the new confinement, which refuses to be presented as such for reasons that are more about political communication, and the upcoming presidential election, than a love of syntax, raises a question that is as obvious as it is pressing: Who is now in charge?

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Clearly the coronavirus, which gripped Europe for most of 2020, took a short hiatus, and returned with alarming strength, is technically in charge.

New Wave, New Confinement

With hesitating procrastination, the government took the time to re-confine nearly twelve million people resigned to accepting new constraints to stem the spread of the epidemic. But the question that persists, aroused by the first, is at the heart of each day, how quickly and in what geographical location will the pandemic develop.

In fact, for more than a year now, the coronavirus epidemic has often defied all predictions, except that of its progression, resulting in an upheaval of all the prognostications projected by the world of scientific brilliance.

Alarmist scientists who would have gladly cloistered the entire population for six months since November 2020 to the government terrorized at the mere idea of an economic and financial disaster in case of massive and total confinement the French (and others in view of the measures taken in the border countries) have finally learned to live with a virus that prints its rhythm and tempo.

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Vaccination and Accustomed

Convinced that they will eventually see the pandemic run out of steam under mass vaccination, however, many French and Europeans admit their weariness. This same weariness, sometimes coupled with the first signs of annoyance (lesechos.fr:), fed by the absence of a fixed deadline or advanced on the end of the epidemic, failing on the first effects of vaccination campaigns, generates a form of silence that some would find disturbing.

Because under the popular adage that be wary of the water that sleeps, or most commonly, still waters run deep, European citizens, French included, patient and understanding, could certainly be less tolerant of power if the health crisis were to continue or worse, if it were to generate a new containment, even if surrounded by all the syntax precautions that would aim to distort its form but not the substance.

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Let us not hesitate to say that all countries facing the pandemic are facing an unprecedented situation capable of generating new reactions. As new electoral deadlines loom that will be consciously or unconsciously influenced by the results of vaccination campaigns and more broadly the management of the health crisis, it is necessary for a government to demonstrate a hitherto unknowability to anticipate an uncertain and potentially explosive future.

The degree of acceptability and resilience of populations that have been strained for several months will thus reach its ultimate point, which is certainly the most dangerous.

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Not that civil war threatens, far from it, but a questioning of crisis management protocols, of those who imagined them and of those who have folded them is not to be excluded. And that is where the risk lies for those who are so far responsible for managing the novelty that will remain so until its end.

Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.