World News: The French Attempt to Quiet a Shocked and Angry Population

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Thursday, 07 May 2020 13:52

Written by Olivier Longhi

The French government has announced the restrictions, which locked down 67 million people, are nearing the end of confinement, it also raises questions about what the French expect in the aftermath of the health crisis.

The French are unruly! Quarrelers, moaners, and grumblers! This is a character trait that is not new and that will not surprise anyone. But this indiscipline takes on a completely different value in view of the current period.

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The deconfinement, which now seems to weigh on a majority of us and especially since a date fixing his judgment has been set, reveals today however its effectiveness. The entire scientific community, which has also called for its establishment, notes with satisfaction how much it has allowed the country to escape from a saturation of its emergency and resuscitation services.

It remains to convince the French to respect the instructions to fight against the virus. And the indiscipline mentioned in the preamble? What about ultimately? Wouldn't it be useful on arrival to wonder about what the French really want for the post-COVID-19?

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Surprised, sometimes dumbfounded, by the overcrowding of hospitals, multiplying solidarity initiatives at the risk of becoming contaminated, defying government instructions to go and help a loved one or a relative, the French as a whole face the virus with courage and certainly, a dose of rebellion.

Priorities and Opportunity

In the background, the coronavirus crisis has revealed a number of latent weaknesses, known but often overlooked or unresolved, in our health system. There would be no point in going back because the list is long.

On the other hand, looking into it now, even if it means making it a substantiated and funded political project on what the crisis has revealed and using it to amend the system in question is not far-fetched. It will certainly be necessary to rethink and redirect the nation's revenues towards priorities that have proven to be glaring. Which ones?

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It can be summed up in three themes: Health, old age, employment.

The first now calls for more funds and financing, the opening of beds or, failing that, the means of better taking patients into account by abandoning, by or by watering down, the liberal discourse which has long served as a breviary for proponents of '' dry and severe management of hospital accounts.

Does this mean that deficits should be left running? No !

But reorienting to spend better is not insulting. The second, managing old age is obvious. The unofficial but de facto marginalization of elderly people placed in residential care has jumped out in everyone's eyes.

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Admittedly integrated into the current health system, these establishments will have to be the subject of increased attention in the future, with for example, a heavier right of scrutiny of the public authorities on their administrative and health management of the places of reception.

The third, employment. If the specter of a return to mass unemployment looms, it is not necessarily set in stone. But the crisis has highlighted how telework is a substitute for a number of trips, (confirming the environmentalist theses of a reduced carbon consumption), could generate new forms of activity based on an internet which, thanks to this crisis, has reached a form of reason age. One thing seems almost certain now, after COVID-19 the future will not look like before. Provided you know how to seize the opportunity offered to us.

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.