{"id":6297,"date":"2020-06-09T11:42:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T09:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joelgirauddepute.fr\/?p=6297"},"modified":"2020-06-09T11:42:54","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T09:42:54","slug":"new-york-times-macron-a-vaincu-le-coronavirus-la-france-nest-pas-impressionnee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joelgirauddepute.fr\/index.php\/2020\/06\/09\/new-york-times-macron-a-vaincu-le-coronavirus-la-france-nest-pas-impressionnee\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times : \u00ab\u00a0Macron a vaincu le Coronavirus. La France n’est pas impressionn\u00e9e.\u00a0\u00bb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New York Times, By Adam Nossiter<\/a>, June 5, 2020 : https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/05\/world\/europe\/coronavirus-france-macron-reopening.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macron Beat Back the Coronavirus. France Is Not Impressed.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

President Emmanuel Macron has gotten little credit for his country\u2019s relative success in battling the contagion. Instead, he remains unpopular and subject to the usual dose of resentments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PARIS\n \u2014 President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s government has beaten back the \ncoronavirus, prevented mass layoffs, propped up the salaries of the \nunemployed, staved off long food lines, and achieved a lower death rate \nthan its neighbors, Germany excepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr.\n Macron ordered a strict lockdown that lasted nearly two months, and \nwhen it was over the virus was barely circulating. But while the early \nresponse could be faulted for some sluggishness and a shortage of masks,\n and more than 29,000 people died, France has fared better than many in \nthe pandemic, especially when compared with the United States, Italy, \nSpain and especially Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just don\u2019t tell that to the French, who resent Mr. Macron for it more than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French expect much of their leaders, and almost always find them wanting. Mr. Macron is no exception.<\/a>\n In fact, the better the results, the less willing, it seems, the French\n are to applaud their president. That pattern has held virtually since \nMr. Macron took office in 2017, casting a shadow over a term expiring in\n two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Macron reduced unemployment and created more jobs, but the French resented him for loosening labor protections. He evened out the country\u2019s helter-skelter pension system, and there were months of strikes<\/a> by aggrieved unions and citizens distrustful of his intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as the French celebrated their provisional release from lockdown this week with the much-anticipated partial reopening of cafes and restaurants<\/a>, the coronavirus has only reinforced the paradox of the president\u2019s uneasy relationship with his own citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
In Paris last month after bars partially reopened.Credit…Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeconfinement\n is going pretty well,\u201d said Olivier Galland, a sociologist at the \nNational Center for Scientific Research. \u201cBut the French don\u2019t seem \nsatisfied. But I don\u2019t think they can ever be satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\n Friday the head of the government\u2019s scientific council, the \nimmunologist Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Delfraissy, declared the epidemic \u201cunder \ncontrol\u201d in France, in an interview on French radio. Still, the French, \nfar more than their European neighbors, have judged the government\u2019s \nperformance in response to the health crisis harshly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDistrust\n is a structural element of French society, stable and \nwell-established,\u201d Mr. Galland wrote in a recent paper on \u201cThe Great \nDepression of the French\u201d for Telos,<\/em> a widely followed political science website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\n average, over half of Europe\u2019s citizens, outside of France, view their \ngovernment\u2019s performance in response to the virus favorably, even in \ncountries with far worse records. In France, 66 percent have an \nunfavorable view, according to a recent Figaro poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Macron stiffened and looked impatient when he was asked recently on French television about his unpopularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, I don\u2019t sit around feeling sorry for myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m looking ahead.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor\n decades this country has known doubt and division,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Macron added. \n\u2018\u2018I don\u2019t believe in miracles. This distrustful France exists. It hasn\u2019t\n changed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever credit France\u2019s \ngovernment gets from its success in dealing with the virus has gone \ninstead to Mr. Macron\u2019s understated prime minister, \u00c9douard Philippe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\n news is pretty good,\u201d Mr. Philippe said simply last week, after looking\n at the post-lockdown results. Over 60 percent found him convincing in a\n poll by the independent Odoxa polling firm for Le Figaro and \nFrance-Info.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sign of his political ascendancy, Mr. Philippe was on the cover of this week\u2019s L\u2019Obs, <\/em>a popular weekly newsmagazine, with the headline, \u201cThe Tough Guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan\n Macron do without \u00c9douard Philippe?\u201d the magazine asked, alighting on \nspeculation that Mr. Macron would jettison a prime minister who has \nstolen the spotlight once the crisis ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet\n the government\u2019s measures \u2014 a tightly enforced lockdown, mobilization \nof French technology like high-speed trains to save patients, and \nclosely followed counsel from scientists \u2014 were Mr. Macron\u2019s. That is \nthe French way: the president decides, and the nation follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mr.
Mr. Macron ordered a strict lockdown that lasted nearly two months.Credit…Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But\n that means Mr. Macron takes the blame, too, for the early shortage of \nmasks, which the government did not initially admit to and a spokeswoman\n minimized. The affair riled the French media for several weeks, but has\n since largely dropped from view. On the streets some wear masks but \nmany do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s most problematic\n is that we\u2019re actually being lied to,\u201d said Marie Balaril, 27, a \nsocial-sciences instructor at a Paris university, as she recalled the \ngovernment\u2019s refusal to acknowledge that the country had faced a mask \nshortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president has \nvigorously defended his record. \u201cLet\u2019s be honest,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Macron said in \nthe recent television interview. \u2018\u2018At the beginning of March nobody was \ntalking about masks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I look around, nobody was ready,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u2018\u2018Nobody. Nobody.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n per capita death rate in France is higher than the United States, with \nmore than 100,000 deaths. But France has a population density \u2014 a key \nvariable in the epidemic \u2014 more than three times greater. France\u2019s hospitalization and death curves have been in sharp decline<\/a> since about the second week of April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Masks
Masks distribution at the Gare du Nord in Paris. The country had faced a shortage of masks.Credit…Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to those on the street, many experts and others interviewed gave the government good marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guillaume\n Chiche, a parliamentarian who recently deserted Mr. Macron\u2019s party \u2014 \nanother sign of the French president\u2019s waning popularity \u2014 said the \ngovernment\u2019s actions \u201cwere very strong.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018\u2018Now,\n they seem logical. But at the time they were anything but neutral,\u201d Mr.\n Chiche said, pointing to the moves to prop up salaries, ban religious \nceremonies, and impose the lockdown. \u201cI think they made choices that \nwere optimal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, he joined \n13 other members of parliament who deserted the French president\u2019s party\n in May, depriving it of its majority \u2014 a symbolic blow widely \ninterpreted in the French media as an ominous sign for Mr. Macron\u2019s \nfuture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Chiche, an ex-Socialist, \nhas been one of the president\u2019s critics on the left, a group judging him\n too favorable to business and urging him to \u201cdefine a new horizon,\u201d as \nMr. Chiche put it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frederic Keck, an \nanthropologist and biosecurity expert, also at the National Center for \nScientific Research, called Mr. Macron\u2019s handling of the pandemic \n\u2018\u2018pretty good.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery centralized management around the president. Very French, but also relatively efficient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis\n dissatisfaction is the reflection of an excessive demand for \nsecurity,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Keck added. But he, too, noted that Mr. Macron was not \ngetting much credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over half the \nFrench approve of the government\u2019s reopening plan. But they don\u2019t \napprove of Mr. Macron: Just 30 to 40 percent judged him up to dealing \nwith the epidemic. In another Figaro poll, 62 percent of respondents \nfound Mr. Macron\u2019s manner \u2018\u2018arrogant\u2019\u2019 and \u2018\u2018authoritarian.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n some ways Mr. Macron is his own worst enemy, with a style that can come\n off as imperious. His speeches during the crisis were lengthy and \nliterary, both trademarks. He first reproached the French for lacking \u201ca\n sense of responsibilities,\u201d then later praised them for their \ndiscipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mr.
Mr. Macron visiting a supermarket in Brittany in April.Credit…Pool photo by Stephane Mahe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe likes these lyrical effusions, and people just aren\u2019t keen on that,\u201d Mr. Galland said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n the recent television appearance, Mr. Macron was shown meeting a group \nof unhappy top chefs by videoconference from the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n chefs \u2014 some of the most famous names in French cuisine, including \nAlain Ducasse \u2014 didn\u2019t conceal their frustration at being forced to stay\n closed during the lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not optimistic about the survival of about half of our restaurants,\u201d Mr. Ducasse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Macron was not impressed. He smiled slightly at the grumbling, then administered a lesson to the complaining chefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook,\n I like liberty as much as you,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Macron said. \u2018\u2018But what you\u2019ve got\n to remember is that it\u2019s good to exercise this liberty in a country \nlike France. It\u2019s good to live in a country where the state is strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added, pointedly, \u201cThere are other countries where the state is letting people fail.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constant Meheut contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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